Sun Kissed - Reissue
by PassiveBot
Summary: Toothless has always been friends with Stormfly, but as time goes on in Berk he finds himself inexplicably drawn to her. The humans in How to Train Your Dragon get all the love, why not share some with the Dragons? A fic centered around the Dragons of Berk, Toothless, Stormfly, Hookfang, Meatlug, Barf and Belch and their colourful lives in Berk. On temp. hiatus.
1. Sun Kissed

Bol here, in case you don't know I am unable to carry on writing stories at my current pace on my own account so I will endeavor to migrate the chapters of said stories to the account of my dear friend, PassiveBot. In the process of this migration I found several errors and discrepancies with my stories that quite frankly, shocks me that I was unable to proof read my old stories effectively.

As such, these chapters will take a slight more time to transfer to this account and will bear with them many changes, small changes here and there, big changes there and about, it should be evident from this chapter. This is done to ensure a higher quality of writing and to ensure that the plot that not bear too many similarities to the story by the very talented TryStrike which I unfortunetely, and unwittingly borrowed too many similarities from in my first publishing of Sun Kissed.

Well, my _business_ voice is exhausted, read on and do leave a review on what you think of the edited story.

* * *

"So, first question."

Toothless listened to the sound of wind whistling in his ears, plucking at his scales like a cool wave and stinging his eyes softly. He lay on his back, perched precariously on summit of a sheer roof, lazy, half-shut eyes glancing over the cloud-dappled sky. The wind carried a draft of salt sea air and the musk of sheep and Dragons. He answered nonchalantly, "Shoot."

"Favourite colour?"

"Green if I'm in a good mood, Black if I'm not."

"Favourite food?"

"You know that weird red little fish? The one with the pink flesh?"

"Ah, Salmon. Okay, favourite two-legs?"

"Hiccup, that's a given."

"Favourite Dragon."

Toothless opened his jaws as the name hung on his tongue, then shut them quickly. He rolled over, making the wooden roof creak slightly, and faced the asker, a crimson Monstrous Nightmare who was curled around the wooden figurehead nailed to the front of the roof. Black barbs that spanned the huge Nightmare's length carved white scars into the wood as Hookfang puffed a cloud of flame in boredom and asked, "So? Who is it? Could it be the very handsome, mysterious and dangerous Monstrous Nightmare before you?"

Toothless made a retching gesture over the side of the roof and the Nightmare gave an amused, rumbling chuckle. "So not me, who is it then?"

Hiccup was off doing whatever two-legs do in their spare time, scurrying about on those weedy little stick-legs, giving Toothless more free time than he'd like. It seemed that Hookfang's rider was also busy, exercising those tiny sinews in his arms to impress female two-legs, so the Dragon had found Toothless here, on the roof of Hiccup's, and they were finding ways to amuse themselves.

Hookfang seemed to think for a while, before he narrowed his eyes and leant in slightly, smoke trailing from the corners of his jaws. He hissed teasingly, "It's Stormfly ain't it?"

Toothless' eyes widened, before he scoffed in shock, "Hah! That's crazy, as if I'd ever… no, just no. She's my friend."

"It _is_ her!" he exclaimed, his snarl turning a few heads of passing two-legs below and flying Dragons above. Hookfang loomed closer and grinned, revealing double rows of long fangs. He glanced to either side to make sure no one was eavesdropping, before asking lowly, "Does she know?"

Toothless rolled his eyes and pushed Hookfang away with one leg. "I told you, she's my friend! _Friend_! You deaf as well as stupid?"

Hookfang didn't seem to care. As the Nightfury pretended to inspect his jet black wings, the other Dragon inched closer, slyly asking, "Have you made a move yet? Always make the first move, bro! The ladies love a guy with confidence."

Toothless smirked, "I'm _sure_ you have a lot of experience with the ladies."

"You bet! Look at this one over here," he raised his wing to show a pale scar along his red and black mottled side. "From a smokey Sand Wraith, this lo-o-ong one up here is from a Timberjack, these two from a Hideous Zippleback, trust me, she was anything but Hideous, both heads got bitey though, and this one from a Stormcutter, it goes all the way down to my-"

"I get the image," Toothless interrupted, shaking his head and trying to clear his mind of it immediately thereafter. "Did you do anything with them besides being their scratching post?"

As he smiled at his own joke, Hookfang said, "Ha ha, joke all you like, but in all seriousness, if you want to make a move you better do it fast."

He kept silent as Hookfang cleaned his claws, continuing, "We won't be young forever, you know? We're two handsome young bachelors, me at least, and Stormfly's a cute lass. She's a bit older than you so she must be nearly, sixteen, you know what that means."

Toothless smirked and raised an eyebrow at his friend. Hookfang continued, "Let's just say if you leave the fish, there'll be a queue at the shore when you get back."

Another wind blew through Berk, carrying with it the breath of the fisherman returning from sea. Toothless licked his lips, tasting the tang of fish. He sighed, "Maybe you're right." He looked down at the two-legs fretting about their little lives in the grass below. "But even if I _do_ say something, will it even work? I mean, she's a Nadder, I'm a Nightfury, what if things get awkward? Then what do I- are you even listening?"

Hookfang was smiling stupidly now, smoke streaming from his nostrils with the hint of something burning. "So you _do_ like her."

"Argh! This is useless."

He gave a cackling laugh, before breathing deep to catch his breath and saying, "If you want my advice- don't make that face, I know you want my wisdom- go out there right now. Like, _legit_ right now, go up to her, ground her for a moment and bring her somewhere real nice, real quiet, have a bit 'o chat, maybe share a fish or two, and here's the trick."

Toothless watched, intrigued, as Hookfang curled around the figurehead again. "Pretend I'm you and you're Stormfly. When you feel the time is right, you lean in close, make her look you in the eye like so." Hookfang's slanted golden eyes locked with Toothless' green ones. "You look deep into her eyes- the window to the soul you know- and then while she's laughing awkwardly trying to figure out what you're doing, you lean in close and tell her not to struggle too much. Then you take her, push her down against the ground and then you-"

Toothless turned away from his friend's raucous laughter, growling, "Damn it, Hookfang, why does everything you say have to end like that!"

* * *

Toothless honestly had a bit of trouble finding Stormfly.

He'd known her long enough to figure out her usual haunts, Astrid's house, the creek in the woods or, like most Dragons, the Larder, but he couldn't find her at a single one of these places today. She wasn't hard to find, with her brilliant scales and bubbly attitude.

Hookfang ticked off a list aloud as he flew ahead of Toothless, "So we've searched the cave stables, the Big House, the Small House, Astrid's House, the Creek, the Larder. Where haven't we searched yet…"

_Maybe she's out with Astrid_, he thought hopefully.

Their search wasn't exactly helped by the fact that Toothless could barely fly without Hiccup, the red tail sail fitted to him wasn't exactly the most intuitive of instruments, to say the least.

"Oh, mother f-" Toothless yelped as his tail sail closed again, mid-glide, and he careened to the side, nearly tackling a flying Gronckle and scrabbling for purchase on the side of a roof.

Hookfang turned in mid-air, _he_ had no trouble flying solo. He laughed, "Having a bit of trouble, small fry?"

"Shut up!" Toothless growled, crawling to the top of the roof, whacking his tail sail against the wood until the metal and cloth snapped back open. He called out to Hookfang as he took off unsteadily again, "How do we even know Stormfly's free? She could be out flying with Astrid!"

"Well if you keep being so pessimistic we'll never find her!" Hookfang called back. "Don't you want to see yourself get embarrassed?"

"No!" Honestly he didn't know why he'd let Hookfang rope him into this. Toothless shook his sail again, the metal fittings clinking against each other as it opened and closed again. "She could be a million miles out to sea and we'd never know!"

"The Sea! We haven't been to the Cliff yet!" He exclaimed. "Come on, black fish!"

They did find Stormfly out on the limestone cliffs, her wings spread out, airing them in the sea wind. The Sunlight glinted off her iridescent scales like a prism, as if she were shimmering in the morning light.

_Stupid, stupid, stupid_…

Toothless stood just where the green grass and moss faded to sun bleached stone. Stormfly stood barely ten metres in front of him, still unaware that he was there, but he was sure it was her.

He growled to himself, _Stupid, stupid._ Glancing back he saw the edge of the two-legs' village some distance away, and the red of Hookfang perched luxuriously upon a rooftop, watching with anticipation. He wanted to curse his friend aloud as he turned back to face Stormfly, he should have never agreed to this.

He could still hear Hookfang's cackling laughs, _You know you want to do this. Why else would you be still here? _

Hookfang was right, but Toothless couldn't stop worrying though. _What if she thinks I'm being weird? What if things get uncomfortable? What if I ruin our friendship? Damn, this is a really bad idea. _

He shifted on his claws, unsure, damp grass and stones scrunching quietly underfoot. _I should just go, Hookfang'll laugh at me but at least I won't have to do this. I just need to leave before she realises I was ever here…_

As the Nightfury began to turn the wet stones scrunched under his claws, making him cringe. Stormfly looked back in surprise, a snarl on her snout at first, before her eyes lit up. "Toothless! What are you doing here?"

"Uh, I was just…" He wanted to curse his luck and fly away without looking back, instead he plastered a grin onto his face and forced out the words, "Hey, Stormfly, uh, what's up?" _Welp_, it was too late to go back now. Hookfang was probably laughing his scales off.

Stormfly started, "Hm, funny you should ask." She scooted over and turned to face the sea, obviously expecting him to join her on the cliffside. Which he did.

Toothless sat himself down as she tipped her head to the sky, exposing her bare neck to the sea. Here, where the giant roars of waves reached him from so far below as they crashed into the cliffs, he could feel the sea spray cast in the wake of the rolling water despite a hundred metres of distance. It was cold, tingling, the wind so strong it felt like he could be batted aside like a toy by the breeze alone.

Stormfly took a deep breath of the salt air, wings spread and closed eyes pointed skywards. She sighed, "This is awesome, isn't it? No more Dragons, no more Riders, just you and the Sea, it makes you feel…"

Toothless would have filled that blank with a dozen different words, _small_, _uncertain_, even a bit _afraid_, but instead he said, "…alive."

She smiled without looking at him. "Exactly."

Stormfly shook her body and rattled her wings, a light mist of condensation on her scales rolled off in a coat of dew that caught Toothless in the eye. He flinched slightly, blinking to get the salt out. She said, "You know, it's a strange thing that you showed up. Most of the time I come here with Astrid and we fly for hours, skimming the waves, riding the sea squalls. She was busy today and it didn't feel… right anymore, to go flying without her."

Toothless looked at her, entranced by every word she said. "Why not?"

"Well, I tried it but it's been so long since I've flown without someone to scream with, someone to laugh with. I need a wingman."

Stormfly turned to him with a sly, dangerous smile. "Which is where you come in."

* * *

Okay, so after editing and the injection of new content, I've decided to split the previously chapter one into two chapters. Please leave a review on what you think, I hope you enjoyed the chapter and that my story was not _too_ painful to read.


	2. To Live for a Day

Toothless took a second to understand what she implied. "A wingman? What do you…" he was snapped out of his dreamy trance in an instant. "Oh no, no way."

"Come on!" She grinned, elbowing him. "It'll be fun! Just the two of us, flying over the Sea, dodging the waves, gliding over the surf! We could have our lunch over the water, catch a few fish!"

Toothless pointed out, "You know I can't fly without a two-legs." He struck his tail against the ground, making the metal fittings clang against the stone. "I can barely glide straight."

Stormfly smirked, "So? We're Dragons! We don't need humans to fly us, not even you! And besides, when do you think we'll get a chance to do something like this again?"

He paused for a while. He could die, he could crash into the waves and drown. _But you can swim. _

She leaned in slightly, her face wild and insistent, "Come on, be alive with me!"

_This is a stupid idea_. Toothless knew it, he knew what could happen, but he saw the way she looked at him and he nodded. "Let's be alive then."

Her joy was so infectious he found himself smiling as he mirrored her, backing up a few paces to the edge of the cliff. The wind was strong up here, at the edge, stinging his eyes with salt carried up from the waves and whistling in his ears, furiously pushing him back to safety. Stormfly turned to him and smirked, "I'll catch you if you fall."

_You'd better,_ he wanted to say.

_You can't fly_, a voice in him remarked as he smiled back at her.

Toothless' heart was pounding and he knew he was afraid, but he didn't back down. He coiled up slightly, before launching himself forward after the faster Stormfly, running for the edge of the cliff.

_You're going to fall to the waves and you'll get crushed against the cliffs. _His inner voices were so cheerful.

He saw Stormfly launch herself off the cliff first, twisting in air and glancing back at him as she dived off the edge of the precipice. His body went through the motions with fluid grace, grabbing the edge of the cliff with his front claws, then his back claws, spreading his wings, launching himself forward and upwards.

_You're doing an incredibly stupid thing, you know?_

_I know._ His heart was pounding like a thousand drums together in his ears and he could hear his blood pumping in him. He tucked his wings in and shaped his body into an arrow, pointing himself at Stormfly below, diving straight for the jagged white rocks that pocked out of the surf. He narrowed his eyes as the wind stung them, rocketing down the side of the cliff and feeling his frame shaking with the hot burning force of the wind that tore at his scales, his wings freezing with the waters of the waves that seemed to rise and fall in a room of mirrors around him. The sound of tearing wind in his ears and bellowing waves was deafening, but above it all he heard the sound of Stormfly screaming and roaring in joy and exhilaration.

_You're going to die. _

_Maybe_, he thought to himself as he watched the rocks rise up to meet him. _But at least before I'm dead, I know I had this moment to be alive. _

As Stormfly spread her wings and rose sharply Toothless followed. He felt the muscles in his shoulders screaming as his wings met the full force of the wind, his flight shaky and uncertain in comparison to her's straight and sharp. He felt himself tipping and careening from side to side, flapping his wing frantically to correct his flight.

A wave crashed against the stones beneath and the waters in its wake rose in a great wall to meet him. Toothless watched Stormfly tear a ragged hole in the wall of water, he didn't close his eyes as he shot through the water, the salt sea forming in beads that rolled down the sides of his wings.

As the pounding of the waves died away, Toothless found a new sound in the chorus, above the beating of his heart, the flowing of his blood, the screaming of the wind, his own voice and roars, his own tongue and his own exhilarated scream of joy, weaved into Stormfly's as they flew.

Toothless laughed, high and clear into the wind as it tore any words away. He was a Dragon, this was where he belonged, in the air, the breeze under his wings, cold air across his scales and freezing water flowing off his scales. He was in control, he was-

A metal clink from his tail as his sail snapped shut.

His eyes widened as he felt himself careening to the side. "Aw, damn."

* * *

Stormfly laughed as she dragged Toothless from the surf onto the beach, her claws wrapped around his neck and centre. She had pulled him up onto a stretch of sheltered sand some distance South of the lime cliffs, safe from the waves.

She let go of him and he tumbled onto a drift of brown, rough sand that scrunched under his weight and stuck to his scales, coating his joints uncomfortably in prickly, moist sharp sediment. Stormfly tried to rein in her laughter at the soaked and shivering Toothless. "Well, there goes 'being alive'."

Toothless, his teeth chattering together from the freezing waters, managed to say, "Y-You mean, t-there goes 'I'll catch you if you fall'."

Stormfly put on a theatrical face of outrage. "You offend me! Here I am worrying about you and that's all you can say?"

Toothless smiled, before he scowled as he tried to clean off the sand stuck to his scales. When he tried to brush it off with his claws it stuck to his claws, when he tried to lick it off it stuck to his tongue. He spat out a few dry mouthfuls, growling, "It's going to take me years to get this all off."

"Good to hear, I'm still just glad nothing bad happened," she said, inspecting her wings again.

"Really?" he asked hopefully.

"Yeah, I nearly got some sand on my scales!" she exclaimed in outrage. "Think of the horror, _me_, having to clean off grit from my wings."

Toothless rolled his eyes. "I could hardly imagine," before a sly smile crept over him. He brushed a large clump of sand onto one of his claws, before feigning a slip and sending a few wet specks of dark sand onto the very wing Stormfly was inspecting.

Her mouth fell agape at the dark spots now on her brilliant golden wing. She looked at it, then at Toothless, "Oh no, you did not just do that."

He turned away from her, drawing himself up and pretending to continue cleaning himself. Silence for a moment, then a growl and a shifting of earth, a second later came a rain of wet sand that coated Toothless' previously clean back.

A shiver passed through him as the cold sand clumped together on his back, Toothless turned around to face a contented Stormfly. She smugly said, "That makes us even."

He promptly leant back on his back legs, raising his front claws in the air, before bringing them down on the beach with all his force and making the sand fly in a wide spray at Stormfly. She tried to back up before her entire front was blanketed with dark sand except for a few spots where her orange and blue striped scales showed through.

What followed next was a brief exchange where Stormfly and Toothless tried to mutually coat each other in wet sand through a variety of techniques, including one which they would come to remember as the Inverted Backwards Catapult which involved Toothless on his back using his wings to send a pocket of sand flying backwards at her.

He collapsed in the sand on his back, heaving, his body worn and tired, cold but hardly miserable. He heard the shifting of sand as Stormfly's body threw itself down next to him, despite the dark brown sand almost completely covering her scales her vanity seemed to have faded away for now at least.

She looked at him, smiling between her pants. "Toothless?"

"Mmmh?"

"We'll always be friends, right?"

He craned his neck around to look up at her. Her face was dirty, covered in dark grit and wet sand that stuck to her scales, only her brilliant golden eyes, lazily fixed in her contented smirk, but there was something inexplicably beautiful about her still. Toothless cocked his head at her curious question, but still answered, "Always."

"Good," she sighed, laying herself across Toothless' upturned belly, her weight winded him but he tried to hide it. She looked up at the sides of the cliffs. "If not I don't know which other Dragon I could torment for fun."

He smiled, flicking a bit of sand at Stormfly. "Well maybe next time, if you catch me when I fall, then I'll think about it."

* * *

Woohoo, chapter two done. Leave a review on what you thought of the changes, if you liked them or not, and if you want the old chapters back. Me and Bol plan to release the chapters at a rate of two to three every week or week and a half. I am open and welcome criticism, _constructive_ criticism as always. Until next time, then, _au revoir,_ friends!


	3. Lady Problems

Okay everyone, the migration of chapters is perfectly on schedule, the next two should be out in a matter of days, latest by Monday. It's tough work trying to simultaneously

Hookfang had been waiting when Toothless climbed back up the cliffs, and had requested for details, copious amounts of details. After hearing what had gone down, and after a bout of rather annoying nudging and winks, followed by a disappointed sigh.

The Nightmare shook his head sadly, "Unfortunetely, my friend, it looks like you've fallen into a situation that those in the business understand as: _The Friendzone_."

Toothless cocked his head. "Honestly, the friendzone doesn't seem so bad."

"Oh sweet, naïve little Toothless."

Toothless was lying on the grass watching Hookfang attentively. The Monstrous Nightmare had been impressed, to say the least, at what the two of them had done. They'd gone out here, to the woods South of Berk, where they were in relative privacy. Still roars echoed out across the island and the odd Dragon flew overhead.

"Rule number one, you can't care."

Hookfang had found a nice clearing, complete with a stream flowing out from between two bleached boulders and a rotten tree with white brittle bark that he used as a diorama of Stormfly in his wise teachings.

"You have to remember, love is an art. But so is War! And I'm sure you know who your opponent is." Hookfang strutted across the clearing, chest puffed out, head held high and spines trussed up. "Don't listen to those fools who say it depends on what's inside, their '_beautiful personality_', well they're wrong!"

Toothless flinched as Hookfang clutched a fallen log in his claws, splintering it. "No matter how nice she is, she _will_ judge you on what you look like! You have to look like you don't care, that you're sexy without effort, you got 'ta got the CONFIDENCE! Chest out, wings spread slightly, chin high! Come on, walk over to her."

Hookfang gestured to the rotten tree. Toothless got up, slightly uncomfortable, and tried to mimick the way the Nightmare had strutted about just now. _Chest out_. Check. _Wings spread slightly._ Check. _Chin high. _Check.

As he swaggered across the clearing to the rotten tree Hookfang commanded, "Swish that tail side to side, show her that she has to make you want her! You won't fall for her like a dying tree! She has to work for you!"

"I'm not sure that's the best way to-"

"Quiet! Now imagine that this dying tree here is her, now I want you to walk the rest of the way, nice and slow."

Toothless tried, he really did, but he just wasn't feeling it. Maybe it was holding his breath too long to puff his chest, maybe it was the disturbing image of a rotten tree as Stormfly. He sighed, sitting back down on the tall grass and flattening it, "I just can't! This just isn't me!"

Hookfang wrapped his wing-arms around his head. He gritted his fangs and growled, "What's not working? It always works for me!"

"I always thought your stories sounded a little weird, considering how your advice always ends with me trying to ra-"

"Maybe you're too short. It's hard to give off confident vibes when you're shorter than her."

Another shape flew overhead, the umpteenth in the past hour. But this shape didn't keep on flying, instead it began to descend in tight, controlled spirals. Toothless glanced up at the Dragon, the light of the sun behind it, it was a Gronckle, one that they both knew well.

"Hey, boys! I was wondering where you lot were," Meatlug called out as she alighted heavily on the ground.

As she waddled over, Toothless called back, "Meatlug! Why're you here?"

"Ah, just wanted to tell you two that they're breaking out the tuna back at the two-legs big house, not the small tuna either." She eyed the two of them suspiciously. "But why're you two out here in the middle of nowhere?"

"Oh Hookfang was just-"

Hookfang stepped in, pushing Toothless aside. "_I_ was just educating our hopelessly naïve friend here about the finer arts of love."

Toothless poked his head out from behind. "He was helping me with girl problems."

Hookfang shot out a contented puff of smoke at a nonchalant Meatlug, annoying her. She raised an eyebrow. "So you were taking relationship advice from Hookfang?"

"Yes," Hookfang answered before Toothless could.

"Well, 'hun, I'm not sure whether to laugh or cry."

"Oh that's rich," he chuckled. "My 'relationship advice' has helped me conquer-"

She tapped Hookfang's skull with her clubbed tail and made him recoil and back away as she walked over to Toothless. Meatlug lay down next to the stream and tapped her tail against the grass next to her. "Come on over here, 'hun, take a seat and we'll get you some _real_ help."

Hookfang repeated her words in a warbly tone but she ignored him. Toothless lay down next to her and Meatlug began, "So, it's Stormfly isn't it?"

"No!"

"Yes, he's hopelessly in love with her," Hookfang warbled mockingly.

"You're not helping!"

"I guessed it long ago," Meatlug said. "Don't eyeball me like that, boy. It's obvious really, you haven't been yourself lately, a lot more anxious and worried than usual. And it's funny to see the way your ears just perk up whenever she opens her mouth."

He flattened his ears and grumbled, "My ears do _not_ perk up."

"And how your eyes just pop open and how you look at her when you think no one's looking. Shush, no interrupting, now tell me, what's on your mind."

Hookfang hissed teasingly, "He and Stormfly had a romantic flight over the surf."

Toothless grumbled, "It was hardly romantic."

"After that they had a little private session down at the beach, one-on-one, eh?" Hookfang grinned suggestively, which was customarily followed by a series of exaggerated winks and elbowing.

Toothless wanted to protest but Meatlug silenced him by setting her club tail on the end of his. "This true?"

"We just played on the sand a bit."

"So what kind of 'playing' was it? Did she initiate it all or did you? What did she say to you?"

"She…" Toothless looked away, suddenly extrememly interested in inspecting those grasses over there, away from the conversation. "…she asked if we'd stay friends, always, and I said yes."

When he looked back he saw Meatlug looking at him with a mixture of care and soft affection, quiet. Hookfang, on the other hand, scoffed, "'Friends'! I told you, mate, friendzone confirmed!"

Meatlug whacked him gently with her tail. She nodded thoughtfully, obviously not at what Hookfang said, but at what Toothless had. "So, she made the first move?"

"Uh, I guess so?"

"Because of my advice! She saw you doing what I told you to and she couldn't resist!"

She sighed, "'Fang, I'm sorry but most of the time your advice ends up with you rapi-, never mind. Listen up close, 'hun."

Toothless leaned in as Meatlug said, "The best thing you could do now is be yourself, the Toothless we all love. That Toothless is the one she knows best, you don't want to make her get to know someone completely new, just work from where you are with what you've got, m'kay?"

"Yeah, I guess so, but what do I do around her? How do I act? What do I talk about- or don't?"

"Just let it happen, dear, if you be yourself, the free, fun-loving and curious little honey, and stop over thinking things then it'll all work, trust me."

* * *

When they got back, Toothless walking through the streets as Meatlug and Hookfang soared overhead, they had debated whether to raid the larder and the new carts of fish rolling in from the docks, Hookfang had suggested finding Barf and Belch but Toothless remembered that the Twins were out on some scheme with the, well, Twins.

The Nightfury beat his wings once, propelling himself easily onto a roof and scrabbling with short, sharp claws digging into the thatching as he pulled himself up. Hookfang called down from above where he hovered with long, swooping wing strokes, "Hurry it up, mate, we don't want to lose to the crowds."

Toothless flapped powerfully and sent himself soaring into the air like an arrow loosed from the string, unfortunately this arrow couldn't fly straight and nearly tackled a Snafflefang out of the air, the annoyed Dragon hissing. Toothless would have apologised but the Snafflefang brandished its lethal tail menacingly before flying away. _Well he's a charmer._ Toothless considered shouting something obscene after him but decided against it.

When they got back just about every Dragon was gathered along the arched rooftops, jostling for space, many more circled overhead, hundreds of colours and breeds, spines and fins and claws poking out everywhere. There were ships anchored down at the docks and seven huge carts laden with giant tuna being wheeled through the street to the Great Hall where the larders were. The two-legs pushing the carts were slightly annoyed by the huge numbers of dragons divebombing their cargo. They would have to give up maybe two carts of tuna before they managed to get back into the larder.

Toothless joined the rainbow cloud of Dragons gliding over the arched rooftops and huts. Hookfang whispered, grinning, "Remember what I said, brother, confidence! Devil may care! Proud, aloof, and please try to look taller."

He pulled to the side and wheeled away, probably going to find Snotlout or steal some tuna for himself. Meatlug sighed and shook her head sadly. She reminded, "Be yourself, 'hun, and it'll work out."

And with that she disappeared into the cloud of Dragons. Toothless exhaled as he followed the tide of soaring Dragons, circling slowly. _Natural. Be yourself, she likes _you_, so be _you_. _

He searched the rooftops, she'd probably be perched on her Rider's home. He remembered where most of the houses were by heart, Astrid's one was up on the ridge, West of Hiccup's.

_There!_ She was perched on the roof of Astrid's house, surrounded by a cohort of other Dragons all watching the tuna carts hungrily. Stormfly couldn't see him, there was an empty spot next to her, miraculously, it seemed to call to him, beckoning him to land next to her.

Toothless veered off towards Astrid's house, psyching himself up. He could already feel the smile sliding across his face as he whistled closer through the air. _This is going to work, I can feel it, today it's all just going to click together. _He could feel his heart rising, a feeling in his chest that was almost painful but felt so good.

Then a Dragon alighted next to her, making Toothless' heart sink. It was a Deadly Nadder like Stormfly, larger, stronger, obviously years older, with a huge tuna in its jaws. Then it turned to Stormfly and promptly fed her the fish.

Toothless didn't know what to feel as he watched. Stormfly swallowed the tuna whole and then pushed her head against the underside of the Nadder's chin, squeezing herself against him and burrowing into his embrace.

He missed a wing beat as he began to comprehend what he was looking at, trying to place what he should be feeling. Then the emotions came in a painful torrent, tearing at his heart strings. He tucked his wings in and dived.

Toothless' wings spread before he struck the ground, forcing him upwards. He glided a metre above the ground, two-legs ducking and screaming as his wings sliced the air over their cowering heads. He wanted to kill them all, he wanted to spit his fire upon them and watch them scream and burn.

His body crashed through the doors to Hiccup's house. As they swung shut behind him they blotted out the noises of screeching, of roaring, of Dragons. Hiccup wasn't home, but frankly Toothless couldn't care less.

_Hookfang was right. _He pushed his head against the floor planks, whimpering to himself. _I should've done something sooner, I should've… I should've…_

_But I didn't._

He raised his head and curled up tightly on the ground, trying to shut out the word as he buried his eyes in his black scales. There was only one reason why he didn't do it earlier, why he was here now, why he wasn't next to her. That answer, that one word, kept on hissing in his ears.

_Coward._


	4. Hingejaw

Hey, guys, we've been quite relaxed on chapter migration, and honestly it's quite time consuming work, considering it's for like 3 stories, with 4 more on the side in the works, even between the two of us. Well enough about our problems, enjoy the story.

* * *

Meatlug had Toothless' tail in her mouth as she dragged him out of Hiccup's house. He writhed, growling and clawing the ground, trying to crawl back to the house. Meatlug marched out, towing Toothless along, drawing stares from Dragons perched on the rooftops and some of the Vikings.

"Let go of me! I want to go back inside!"

"You've been in there for weeks already."

"It's too bright!"

"The Sun'll do you some good, 'hun."

"No! Let go of me!"

He'd gone into a self-imposed exile after seeing Stormfly with the other Nadder, or 'It' as he so fondly called him, and had stayed holed up there for three weeks, long enough to calm down but he hadn't gotten over it completely.

Meatlug sighed as she trotted forward, barely noticing as Toothless flapped his wings, trying to fly back. It didn't work. She growled, her mouth full of Toothless' tail, "You won't ever do any good inside that house."

"What's the use?" he cried out, crashing back to ground as Meatlug jerked her head. He cleaned his head of a bit of dirt and growled, "Did you see the way she was snuggling with it? Did you see how it fed her? Disgusting."

"Didn't she do the same thing to you?" Meatlug asked without looking back. Toothless flew back up and latched onto a hut's arch roof, his claws scratching out white furrows as he was pulled away. She said, "And anyways, she's still your friend, isn't she?"

She met a little resistance as Toothless hooked his claws on the edge of the roof, and promptly jerked her head, dislodging Toothless and making him crash into a flying Zippleback, making both squawk in surprise. He crashed back to ground and Meatlug continued pulling nonchalantly. "If you were a good friend you'd be happy for her."

Toothless snarled, baring his teeth.

"Very scary. Now, as I was saying before you started whining, Stormfly's new friend isn't leaving anytime soon, that's for sure, so we might as well get to know him."

"What!?" Toothless exclaimed. "We're going to see him? Nope, nope, I'm out, I'll just go back and curl up for the next few months."

"Uh-uh, 'hun, you are _not_ running away."

"Ow, ow, ow! Watch the tail! You'll tear the sail if you bite so ha-" His voice shot up several octaves as she crunched down.

"That's better. Now, she said they'd be outside the big house, an-n-nd right over ther

Toothless paled when he saw them. They were seated calmly on the grassy patch outside the Great Hall, Hookfang, Stormfly and the Nadder. Hookfang was talking to the Nadder, raising his wings and showing off his many 'trophy' scars, while Stormfly looked on, smiling softly.

"Oh no, if you bring me up there I swear I will-"

"Stormfly! Hookfang! Look who I brought!"

_Oh no_. They all turned to look. Stormfly's face lit up and she stood up, calling, "Toothless! Where have you been?"

He began to turn around when Meatlug bit his tail harder, growling, "Come on! You're her friend! You might as well try and get to know him!"

Toothless snarled, baring his teeth.

"Ok, at least pretend to be friendly to him."

Meatlug dragged him up the stone steps up to the Great Hall and deposited him, along with a rather bruised tail, in front of them.

The Nadder raised an eyebrow. "So, this is the great Toothless. I have to say you were right Hookfang, he _is_ a bit short."

The Nadder was intimidating up close, larger than Stormfly who was already taller than Toothless. He was, for lack of a better word, beautiful, as striking as Nadders come. His scales were a deep shade of morose purple with the freckled colour of his wings almost green. His voice was like smooth water, deep and melodious yet gravelly at times. He leant in and smelt Toothless' scent, part of how Dragons usually greeted strangers, but instead of baring his throat in a vulnerable fashion, he loomed over Toothless, growling, "You know, I once ate a yak larger than you."

Toothless drew himself up to his full height and looked up at the Nadder. "Well, you're welcome to try with me."

He was itching to fire a bolt of blue flames into _it's_ scales. The Nadder growled deeply, before Stormfly laughed, "That's another thing about him, he has such a flair for the dramatic."

The Nadder backed down and took his place next to her, chuckling, "Only when you're around to impress."

Stormfly nipped his chin playfully and turned to look at Toothless. "Where have you been? Anyways, this is Hingejaw, he acts tough but he's a real sweety. Hingejaw, you know Meatlug."

Meatlug smiled to the Nadder and planted herself next to Stormfly.

"And this is our own little celebrity guest, Toothless!"

Hookfang caught Hingejaw's attention. "Now as I was saying, this long scar is from a Timberjack. Took me a bit of manoeuvring not to get sliced up."

"That sharp?" Hingejaw asked without a hint of curiosity in his voice.

"Sharper. Anyways, how about you? I'm sure a suave Dragon like you has a few," Hookfang cleared his throat. "_Trophies_, ya' naw' wha' I'm sayin'?"

Dragon mating was, for lack of better words, dangerous and violent, complete with love bites and scratches, usually on the bellies. Scars and wounds were extremely common, even the odd dismemberment here and there. Toothless wondered, however, if Hookfang had really gotten all his scars from that, after all, his advice on relationships and flirting seemed quite strange.

"Well, in fact I have quite a collection…" Hingejaw began. Stormfly gave a snarl, smiling and growling at the same time.

"… uh, nah, I don't have too many. However," he looked down at Stormfly and nibbled one of her crown spikes. "I'm looking to add a few."

She giggled.

Toothless made eye contact with Hookfang, who seemed impressed, and made a disgusted face.

"So, how about you, Toothless?"

He turned to face Hingejaw, smirking at Toothless. "Where are your scars? A famous little lizard like you, don't expect me to believe you haven't had luck with females."

Toothless could tell from the mocking tone that they were going to have a wonderful friendship. He kept his smile plastered on and was trying to find something curt to retort, but Meatlug saved him. She said, "Toothless? Oh, he just saving himself for the _right_ girl."

Hingejaw loomed closer, tilting his head so he looked at Toothless with only one golden eye. "I wonder who this right girl is? Of course, she'd have to be smart, funny, same species and- oh wait, there _are_ no more Nightfuries besides you, sorry about that."

Toothless thought to himself, _Say that again and see what happens. _Instead he laughed, "No worries, I'm a very patient waiter."

The Nadder looked the smaller Dragon up and down, "You'll be waiting a long time then." Hingejaw tilted his chin proudly. "Hm. How about you, Meatlug? You saving yourself too?"

"Oh definitely, 'hun, 'Imma be just waiting for the right boy to come along," she sighed dreamily. "Someone big and hunky and strong and BIG!"

"Preach, girl" Stormfly laughed. "Here's to the right boys."

Toothless joined in the shared laughter and forced out a chuckle that sounded like a dying animal. Thankfully they didn't seem to notice.

* * *

When the two of them flew off they were so close they kept on bumping their wingtips together. Immediately once they were out of earshot, Toothless growled to Hookfang and Meatlug, "I don't like him."

"And he don't like you!" Hookfang pointed out. "But besides the whole 'Alpha Male' act he had with you, he's a pretty chill guy."

"You're supposed to have my back!"

"Well you have to admit he's smooth, I'm starting to see why Stormfly's with him."

Toothless made a face and stamped around the grass, avoiding the imprint of flattened grass that Hingejaw had left. "He's bad for her, I'm telling you! You see the way he looks at her like she's some… some sheep he's stalking! How can she not notice?!"

He cringed and jumped away as he felt a sharp pain in his tail. He whirled around and saw Meatlug there. "Can you stop doing that!?"

"You need to calm down, 'hun. And don't you prejudge Hinge!" she replied sassily. "Maybe Stormfly likes is this way?"

Toothless made another face. "Are you serious? You know Storm better than me, would she want something like this?"

"I said 'maybe', and it's pretty obvious why he don't like you?"

"It is?"

Even Hookfang seemed to know. He chuckled, "Oh sweet, naïve brother, let me tell it to you straight. 'Jaw thinks you're making a move on his girl."

"Or he could just hate me."

"Meh, that's one way of seeing it. But look on the bright side, it means he's scared enough to be an asshole to you."


	5. The Game and The Player

Of course Toothless tried to avoid both Hingejaw and Stormfly, and of course he couldn't. They kept on appearing everywhere he looked, cuddling on rooftops, cuddling on the bluff, on the cliff, the courtyard even.

Toothless really couldn't place what she saw in Hingejaw. He must be at least ten years older than either of them, his claws were worn from many battles and though he tried to hide it, Toothless had glimpsed the dozens of scars that crisscrossed his belly. And the way he acted when Stormfly had her back turned, he reminded Toothless faintly of Hookfang but less of a harmless joker and more of a brazen and thuggish beast, snarling at other Dragons who got too close and even attacking one who happened to glance at Stormfly as she left.

Astrid, probably one of two level-headed two-legs on the island, was of no help at all, in fact she was ecstatic and encouraged Stormfly. Hiccup wasn't much use either, it seemed he was much more concentrated on avoiding his father, the two-legs with the facial mane, and bringing Toothless flying. Not that he didn't like their flights, it was just that he couldn't enjoy himself with his mind on other things.

"What's wrong, buddy?"

Hiccup, still looking very awkward and gangly even for a two-legs, was sitting on the edge of his bed in the dimly lit room, adjusting his funny metal foot. A hopeless contraption, it didn't even give him any claws or barbs, but it allowed him to walk.

"You feeling down lately?"

"I'm glad you noticed," Toothless said, looking away. Of course the human didn't hear anything more than a rather sarcastic sounding growl.

"Hey, Toothless, I got a perfect idea. Do you know what will cheer you right up?"

Toothless warbled aloud in a mocking imitation, "_That's right, buddy, flying!"_

"That's right, buddy, flying!"

_Ugh. _It was just about the fifteenth time that week and third time that day. His father must be looking for him again. Flying was amazingly fun and all, and he loved Hiccup like a brother despite his shortcomings, but he just wasn't in the mood.

Hiccup got up and staggered over, before lunging and grabbing Toothless' neck, trying to wrestle him to the ground. He laughed, "Come on, vile Dragon! Face me so you can watch me vanquish you!"

Toothless sighed sadly, looking out the window, the afternoon light out there stinging his retinas. There they were again, cuddling literally metres from the house. He suspected Hingejaw did this on purpose.

Hiccup eventually got tired of wrestling with Toothless' immobile neck and began to scratch him behind his ears. "You tired today buddy? Want to call it a day?"

He sighed back, "I'm not really tired, it's just that, just look out the window!"

"What's the matter?"

"I told you, just look at them out there, cuddling and smooching and, urgh, that looked really wrong."

"What are you looking at? Do you want to go outside? Let's go outside."

Sigh. "Typical two-legs."

Hiccup got onto Toothless' back and craned his neck around to look out the window. "What're you looking at out there? Oh, that's Stormfly isn't it, and… who is that? Hackjaw? Jackdaw? They look happy, don't they?"

Toothless warbled, "Oh, soooo happy. Just look at the way he licks her like a bone, disgusting."

"Oh, it's because of her isn't it?"

"Yes! Finally, you understand!"

"Is that what's wrong? You want to be outside with them?"

"Aaand you don't understand. Great."

Hiccup laughed, "That's why, isn't it? Come on, buddy, we'll go outside for awhile."

Toothless sighed sadly, shaking his head. "Hopeless."

Hiccup eventually gave up and left the house on his own, probably going to find some other two-legs to avoid his father with. Toothless sighed and looked morosely at the door, clicking his claws against the wooden floor with each passing second.

A pang in his stomach. He groaned in discomfort and rolled over, rolling up slightly. Dragons can, in theory, survive for months without food. They _can _but 'can' doesn't always mean 'want to' or 'like to'. He contemplated going out to find a fish or two, maybe nabbing a bit of mutton, before slinking back in, but Stormfly and Hingejaw were still out there.

At that moment the door was cracked open. Toothless sat up, ears perking up, before a crimson and black mottled head poked in. "Hey, brother! Wha' 'cha doing holed up here?"

Toothless cocked his head. "This is like, my second home you know? Why are you here?"

"Oh, you know." Hookfang squeezed his bony body through the seemingly tiny doorway, quite a feat, and jumped up to the rafters where he coiled around them. "Stormfly's preoccupied, Meatlug's off looking for her own 'hunky lovecake' after seeing our friend so happy with Hingejaw, and I might have dumped Snotlout in the sea a few miles out."

Toothless' jaw dropped. "What? You aren't afraid something'll eat him?"

"Nah, nothing's _that_ stupid. Anyways, why aren't you outside? I was looking for you, man."

Toothless crossed his front legs on the ground and laid his chin on them. "You know, just unwinding here."

Hookfang hung his long neck down and glanced out the window. "Oooo, they're right outside. Harsh. You still breaking your back over her?"

He didn't answer, simply swatted his tail from side to side, the metal fittings and the sail clinking against the wood.

Hookfang said, "Come on! Life's too precious to waste it stuck in this place! So what if she's falling for someone else?"

"But _look_ at that someone else!" Toothless glanced back out the window and his eyes met those of Hingejaw, looking back. As he ducked back down hurriedly, he hissed, "Look at him! He looks so… He's not good for her, I don't even think I've seen him here before! I think he's a wild Dragon!"

"Well maybe Storm likes the wild side. But that's beside the point!" Hookfang stated firmly. "I know if I left you here you'd never go out there for a few months at least."

"I was actually planning one or two years."

"I won't watch my tightest brother die in a two-leg hut because of one Dragon! You can't live like this! Go out there, find a nice girl, make it work! You're famous, dammit, the only Nightfury-"

Toothless sighed at the reminder.

"-and the one of two who united the two-legs with us. That counts for something! Trust me! If you asked them they'd chant your name through the streets!"

He shook his head, "Very funny."

Hookfang's turn to sigh, rather dramatically in fact. "Whenever I pick up a new girl, you know what the first thing they say is? Let me tell you," he cleared his throat and put on an amusing falsetto. "Oh! You're that one Dragon, the one who's always with the Nightfury! You're Toothless' friend!"

Toothless looked up slightly. "For real?"

"For real, bro, the chicas love you! If you asked them to they'd carry you on their backs everywhere, flying, walking, whatever!"

Toothless scoffed, "I'm sure."

Hookfang sighed in exasperation now. "You know what?" his tail coiled down and propped open the doors. "I know this Sand Wraith chick, her Rider's some grubby two-legs but she's really sweet. Walk out those doors and I'll bring you right to her and I GURANTEE, tonight you'll have someone to keep you company."

Toothless backed up a bit, unsure. "Are you serious?"

"Yeah, man," he replied. "Call it a favour, I know you'd do me a solid anytime."

* * *

"Now uh, some notes before you talk to her."

Toothless was clinging to the side of a tall pine, Hookfang curled around the one besides. The Sand Wraith was on the ground below them, digging out a shallow trench between a clump of trees. The Nightmare seemed to tick off a mental list as he said, "Her name's Deevale, exotic right? She likes digging, mutton, and she dislikes swimming, wildflowers, and sing-a-longs."

Toothless kneaded the wood under his claws nervously. "Why don't you just come introduce us to each other?"

"Well, uh, about that."

Toothless glanced at Hookfang as he explained sheepishly, "She might get a bit clingy, just a tad bit," he added quickly. "Nothing to worry about."

"And you know this because…?"

"You know that one scar I said I got from a Sand Wraith? Yeeeaaah…"

Toothless raised an eyebrow. "So you're giving me second-hand goods?"

"Call it slightly used. Now go get 'er, man!"

Toothless kicked off the tree, gliding softly down in controlled manoevers, silently alighting behind her, his wings kicking up clouds of fallen leaves. He exhaled, calming his nerves, before putting a smile and strutting forward. "Deevale, is it? My names Toothle-"

He ducked down as a clump of dug up dirt flew through the space where his face had been. The Sand Wraith turned around and gave a gasp, "Oh! It's you! I'm so sorry but I tend to dig a lot and I didn't know you were there and-"

He chuckled nervously, "It's fine, totally fine."

Sand Wraiths looked disturbingly like Night Furies, their orange and brown striped bodies were gerally the same shape but their wings were shorter and short, stubby backward facing spiked scales ran along her wings and tail, a crown of short spikes behind her head where a Nightfury would have.

Deevale sat back and smiled. _Hookfang was right, she is quite pretty._ She stammered, "I-It's you! I mean I don't know you but I know you! You're Toothless!"

He smiled. "Last I checked, yeah."

"Oh this is so awesome." She gave her head and neck a shake and a shower of dirt flew off. When she looked back and smiled she looked surprisingly like a reflection of him, albeit spikier, smaller and hyper.

"Oh my, you're so much more... more...," she bobbed her head up and down as she talked, bubbling over with joy. He could see why she liked digging, something to burn all that energy on. She gave a tiny little laugh as her smile widened, "You look really beautiful- handsome, no I didn't mean that you- you look really nice, good."

Toothless couldn't say he wasn't excited, he hadn't felt like this since before with Stormfly, and it made him feel happy. She was cute, and not just because she looked the part. He shifted nervously, "So uh, I was wondering if, well-" He thought of Hookfang and smiled slyly, "I've got time to burn, and looks like you're hot enough to burn it with."

It was such an unbelievably cheesy thing to say, such a _Hookfang_ thing to say that he nearly gagged on his words. But Deevale looked stunned, she looked away shyly at first, glancing up with a tiny smile and giggling. "Then let's get a fire started. I uh, I know this place around the lamb pens, around back, you can like crawl through, open season on the sheep."

_Well, that was easy. _She immediately went to his side and goaded him away towards Berk. As she did she continued to rant animatedly, "You know, when everyone sees us they'll be so... so... I'm with a Night Fury! Can you imagine? You smell nice, is that coal? Smells nice, almost like-"

Deevale stopped in her tracks, her eyes popping out her skull as she stared at Toothless. "What is it? Is something wrong?"

She began sniff him, running her snout along his sides, tickling him. "Woah, what are you doing? Nope, nope don't go down there-"

She immediately pushed her face up against Toothless', hissing, "You smell like him! The Nightmare! Where is he? He's here isn't he? Is he watching?"

This Dragon seemed a bit more than 'clingy'. She roared into the forest, "Fang-Fang! Where are you? Mommy's coming for you!"

That sounded so wrong on so many levels. Toothless began to back up surreptitiously, before she whirled around and affixed him there with an accusing stare. "You! You have his scent! Where is he? Tell me! Where's my Fang-Fang!"

She spread her wings and burst towards him as he turned and began to lope away, back towards the village, hearing the sounds of crashing bushes, snapping branches and Deevale screeching, "Where is my Fang-Fang!?"

* * *

"Well I told you she was a bit clingy."

Toothless threw himself onto the floor of Hiccup's hut, his tongue hanging out and panting hard. He managed to say, "You… you…"

"I thought she'd have forgotten about me, it was one night nearly a year ago." Hookfang glanced out the window hurriedly, the clearly visible orange-brown blur of a Sand-Wraith soaring over the village screeching, "Where are you! Let me love you!"

Hookfang hurriedly covered up the window with a wing. "Whew, at least now I know that she isn't up on the market."

Toothless propped himself up on the bed. "That… I… next time, try not to hook me up with someone crazy."

Hookfang jerked one eyebrow up. " 'Next time' huh? Is my favourite Night Fury still up for the challenge?"

Toothless panted hard thrice, before nodding slightly.

"That's the way, man! I know this Grapple Grounder, likes it rough, she likes to go down by the cave stables to-"

A screech from outside, "Hookfang! Let me love you!"

Toothless panted, "Why not… we just stay here for the moment?"

Hookfang glanced out the window and shut it in an instant. "Agreed."

They waited in silence for a few moments, before Hookfang asked, "Is she still uh, calling me Fang-… Fang?"

Toothless nodded.

"We'll be here for a while."


	6. Last Autumn Breath

PassiveBot- Hey everybody, sorry for the long delay on this chapter. Long story short, I was working with Bol on other matters. At the end of the next chapter I will discuss further but until then, I hope you enjoy these next two chapters! Sorry for lapses in quality, exams for her and I was abroad in Germany. Enjoy and please review, it means the world!

* * *

"Let me tell you, it ain't easy being me."

Barf and Belch stood perched upon a snow coated roughhewn stone statue of a Viking warrior, each head taking turns to nip at passing two-legs. Toothless was lying on the edge of one of the huts ringing it, Hookfang on another and Meatlug on a third.

Barf, the sister of the relationship, rolled her eyes. "Don't tell me about easy'. I have to live with this cancerous growth on my neck, I think it's learning to speak, oh wait, that's you, Belch."

"You make the funny," Belch growled, before snapping at another passing Viking, clipping his horned helmet. The two of them looked almost identical but there were differences, minute ones but still differing. Barf had a more curved horn upon her round snout and was a lighter shade of green, Belch had longer fangs that poked out near the front while Barf's protruded near the back. The two of them had been off for weeks since Ruffnut and Tuffnut rode them out for some strange plot that involved a giant cask of mead being dropped from fifty metres up onto the courtyard in the middle of the village. It didn't work so well, the cask nearly killed three two-legs, a Dragon, and flooded the courtyard with mead that took the rest of the day to clean. Even now, the place smelt slightly of honey.

Hookfang tapped his claws against the roof's wooden beams. "I was wondering, since both of you share the same body how do the uh, _parts that don't see the Sun_ work? Do you have one or the other or both or what?"

Toothless shuddered, shaking off a coat of snow that had settled on his back, and grimaced as Belch began, "Oh it's actually very interesting. You see most Zipplebacks are either male or female, but we're mixed, so naturally it's also a mix down there and-"

"Urgh," Barf growled. "Typical boys, disgusting. What he meant was that it's like they got blended together in a bloody churning mill of flesh and scale and bile, our bodies settled on -"

"Let me stop you there before I throw up," Meatlug hurriedly said.

The days had only gotten lazier as Winter began to creep in, the short fleeting moments of rich Sunlight were replaced by soft snow eternally drifting down upon Berk. Toothless shook off a new layer of snow and gave his freezing wings a few short flaps to shake off the frost. Hookfang was having no problems with the cold, whenever too much snow got on his scales he just spat a glob of his flammable green saliva on it and ignited it.

Meatlug watched another Gronckle float past, sighing, "I wonder where Stormfly is? I haven't seen her or Hinge for days."

Toothless wasn't complaining about it. The first few days of their absence he'd been cautiously slinking to the ground, looking around corners just in case they were there, once he realised that they were off doing gods know what he had felt a jolt of energy. He felt so free now, as if something had been squeezing his lungs all this while.

He rolled over and lay on his back on the roof, sprawling out his wings and letting the cool snow coat his warm belly. He stuck out his tongue and caught a snowflake on the tip.

Belch looked up as Barf snatched a basket from a passing two-legs. Belch asked, confused, "Let me get this straight, Stormfly's dating a wild Dragon, twelve years older than us?"

Barf scowled as she realised the basket she'd stolen was filled with berries and flung it to the ground, the red berries scattering across the snow. Belch continued, "This _is_ the same Stormfly we all know right? The innocent, carefree, fun loving little lass who Toothless is hopelessly crushing on?"

Toothless grumbled softly. Barf raised her head as Belch nipped at the heels of marigold coloured Hobblegrunt flying by. Barf said, "Well I for one, am proud of her! She's an independent strong female and I'm glad she's found a mate so early."

"Oh please," Meatlug scoffed. "He's hardly a mate. She's young, it's probably just a phase. She'll grow out of it."

"Well that's the good thing about being the female of a couple," Barf chirped cheerfully. "When you get tired of him, you can always eat him."

Meatlug smiled, glancing away to the side, towards the forest it seemed. She said in a rather evasive way, "Oh, and speaking 'bout Hingejaw… he might be uh, …"

Toothless rolled his eyes. _HIngejaw this and Hingejaw that. _"Oh, just spit it out already."

"I might have invited him over."

Toothless' jaw dropped and hit the roof. "WHAT?"

"'Hun you'd best calm d-"

"CALM DOWN? YOU JUST INVITED _IT_ AND YOU EXPECT ME TO-"

Barf's eyes narrowed and she snarled in his direction, "Cool it, Nightfury, how about you check yourself, before I-"

Toothless snarled, "Oh shut it! You don't know a damn thing about him! He's a jerk, he's an asshole, he's-"

A growl, deep and smooth, "You lot seem worked up."

The Nightfury spun around in surprise to see an, unfortunately, by a now familiar Dragon. Hingejaw, complete in all his iridescent glory, detaching himself from the traffic of Dragons above and descending upon the ring of roofs where they perched.

He had an immediate effect, even if it was drastically different between them. Belch raised an eyebrow, Hookfang immediately straightened himself up and puffed out his chest, Barf on the other hand, Barf gave an open-mouthed "Wow", while Meatlug only smiled sweetly as she shot Toothless a meaningful glance. He personally gave a grimace for a split second, before replacing it with a pretty grin as Hookfang glanced sidewards at him.

Barf smiled with uncharacteristic sweetness, trying to make space on the stone statue for him to perch, Belch groaned irritably and she snarled pointedly at her brother. Hingejaw chose instead an empty roof between Hookfang and Meatlug, which sat well with Toothless. At least it wasn't next to him.

Barf was, by now, quite flustered. While her brother continued harassing passing two-legs below, she batted her eyes and snaked her long neck towards Hingejaw. "So you're the big strong Dragon I've heard so much about. I have to say you're much more handsome up close."

Hingejaw jerked an eyebrow in the most despicable way. "You're quite the looker yourself, kid."

At the name 'kid', Barf quite visibly shivered. Belch rolled his eyes at his sister, before turning to the Nadder. He gave a whistle, "You're Stormfly's new ride huh?"

Toothless gave a low growl that they didn't hear.

Belch looked him up and down. "Well, at least she's got good taste."

"Damn right she does," Hingejaw nodded.

Toothless gave a quiet sigh, this was going to be a long day.


	7. Cold Jaws

Toothless wasn't a stranger to cold, he lived in Berk after all, but the weather did manage to irk him at times. Right now, for instance, there were only a few weeks of Fall left but here on the island it might as well always be Winter.

If he lay in the Sun for too long it would make his scales uncomfortably hot, if he lay in the shade too long it would get irkingly cold. Of course, the weather wasn't really the reason he was bothered at the moment.

Toothless watched with growing irritation as the thing sat there, entertaining his friends. With each word Hingejaw seemed more and more… normal. Granted he was a shade more callous and low than the others, but he didn't seem like an overtly bad Dragon. Without Stormfly to be protective of, he was much less hostile. And that just served to feed Toothless' dislike of him.

Barf was instantly smitten, she smiled with uncharacteristic sugar whenever he happened to glance her way, her brother, Belch, not as impressed. Hookfang, Toothless could hardly believe what he saw, seemed to have a real connection with Hingejaw. At the moment they were comparing trophies.

Barf noted coyly, "Don't try to hide those scars down there, you've got a lot of history, don't you?"

Hingejaw cocked an eyebrow, "Not just history, experience."

As if on cue, he rolled over slightly to reveal a belly of scars, so much that there wasn't much whole scales left. He smirked at Barf's face, "I stopped counting at thirty. Uh, here's a Speed Stinger, Nadder, Wraith, this one belonged to a 'Death', but I just can't remember which one."

"Damn, son," Hookfang cocked an eye. "Speed Stinger eh? Impressive."

"A pack of them had me for an easy meal, penned me inside a cave one day. I had some 'negotiations' with one of them that night and she got me a way out."

"Damn, brother, you got game."

Hingejaw smiled slyly and rolled back to rest. "You've got no idea."

He wasn't Stormfly's type at all, what did she even see in this thing? Toothless gave an unamused face as Hookfang mouthed, 'Not bad'. At least Belch seemed to share Toothless' sentiments, to some extent. The Brother of the Pair was always more grounded and sensible, and did not seem at all as approving as he had when he'd first met Hingejaw.

Meatlug shuddered and shook off a layer of accumulated snow on her back. She cleared her throat, "So, Hingejaw, I didn't invite you here so you could share war stories. 'Hun, I asked you here so we could all know…"

"Oh please, I've no stomach for lectures. Spit it out, then."

"Well, as y'know, we care about Stormfly deeply."

Toothless growled softly to emphasise the point. Barf shot him a withering glare, before returning her attention to HIngejaw.

Meatlug continued, "And as we care about her, I think that-"

"Ah, I see where this is going," the imposing Nadder laughed. "This is about me and her, isn't it?"

Silent acknowledgement.

Hingejaw spread his large wings, shaking off the snow upon them, and answered, "Well isn't it obvious? Stormfly loves me, and I love her. She's a sweet girl, I'd never hurt her, so put that face away, Nightfury."

Everyone turned to Toothless and he quickly hid his growing glare, smiling instead. Barf shot him another sneer, which he subtly returned with a narrowing of his eyes.

Ruffnut and Tuffnut found them a while later and coerced their Dragon away. Barf left with much reluctance, as expected, and Meatlug left soon after to find Fishlegs, and Hookfang to go raid the pantry.

Their ring of rooftops seemed quite empty without the others, and as Hingejaw watched Hookfang soar away Toothless went on overdrive, trying to concoct some reason to leave. He began, "Yeah, Hiccup said he needed help with something so I kinda need to uh…"

Hingejaw glanced back. Nadders were naturally beautiful Dragons, and he was far from an exception. He seemed to glow with a morose, deep radiance in the stark Autumn Sun as he shook off some snow on his neck. He smiled without a dose of his usual venom to Toothless. "It's all good."

Toothless turned to leave immediately, breathing a sigh of relief and shaking his tail sail irritably while it refused to open. "Damn metal thing…"

Hingejaw's voice sounded out from behind, plainly saying, "I know we don't like each other, and Meatlug's told me about your history with Stormfly."

He stopped where he was, the forwardness of the Nadder's words caught him off guard. Toothless glanced back.

The larger Dragon said, "I hope you understand why I got up in your face when we met."

_No I don't understand_, he growled back. But of course he didn't say that out loud. Aloud he sighed, "It's all good."

"Just make sure that you'll- just do what makes her happy."

_What makes her happy_. Could he do that? Was he willing to do what it took? He grit his teeth softly. _Happy_. Even if it meant he had to let her go.

Toothless turned around to face Hingejaw, looking up at him. "And if I ever find out that she gets hurt in anyway, I'll find you. Do you understand me? I'll find you, crystal?"

It wasn't an idle threat, and Toothless knew that was clear.

"Crystal," Hingejaw nodded with a smirk. "And you can relax, I'd never hurt her."

* * *

PassiveBot- And on that ominous note, chapter 8. So, on to the delays. Of course Bol was concentrating on her exams, and though I did my best to help her that was not the real reason, nor my overseas trips. The truth is that I had spent most of my time trying to help her with he extensive collection of stories. When she'd told me that she had many unfinished projects, I had expected maybe a dozen or two stories, but in reality, she has seventy-six unfinished stories!

Short stories, unfinished novels, fanfictions, and there are even quite a few finished, but unpolished, stories, even a full novel. Bol is a beautiful, prolific writer, but she craves an outlet to post these stories, not just fanfictions, and I want the chance to help her shine and for her talent to be recognised, so I implore you readers to help me.

If any of you know an outlet where we can freely post stories for criticism, I beg you to share them with me so I can help Bol grow past her boundaries.

P.S. I'm hoping she doesn't read this or things might get awkwaaaaard.


	8. Surprise

Hi, PassiveBot here, this is the first of a three-part chapter that should come out in the days to come. This one chapter is from the POV of Stormfly so I hope I've done well. It's been a pretty hectic few weeks, at least for me, and Bol is no less capable at the moment as she just came back from Germany. Hopefully it's readable, hopefully... please be kind...mew.

Well, anyways, leave a review on what you thought and enjoy the story!

* * *

Stormfly giggled slightly, her wings still drawn over her eyes so she only saw the mottled sunlight through the veiny folds in her golden and blue scales. She smiled as Hingejaw led her deeper into the shaded forest, "Can I look now?"

"It's a surprise, no peeking."

He'd been leading her on for a long time now, the only sound the ever shrinking roars of Berk and the scrunch of snow under her claws. Hingejaw gave her a little nibble at her side, "There's a fallen log here, just step over it, that's my girl."

She smiled, he had a way of making her feel little and vulnerable, yet inexplicably safe next to him. It wasn't a feeling she was used to as a Dragon, as a predator, but she found she quite liked it, strangely.

Earlier that morn he'd led her into the forest, whispering with a grin, "I've got a surprise waiting for you." And with that he had spirited her away deep into the glens, nudging her along the right way.

Stormfly could barely resist the temptation to sneak a glance under her wings folded upon her eyes as her claws sunk slightly into the powdery snow. Her eyes moved upwards towards the sound of a faraway laugh, she raised an eyebrow he couldn't see, "Are you sure you know where you're going? By now we should be _pretty_ far away from Berk."

She could imagine him smirking with his sapping confidence, "That's the plan."

"But don't you think-"

Her claws snagged on his and she stumbled, removing her wings from her eyes and flapping them wildly as she fell forward and onto Hingejaw's side. He wore a tiny smile, "Clumsy you."

"You tripped me on purpose!" She said in mock outrage. His body was warm, sinewy and strong, in that moment she felt a heart beating in tune with her's and a chest that rose with each bated breath. She looked again and saw that his eyes were restless, excited as he grinned, "I'm sure. We're here."

Stormfly looked up and found herself in a beautiful shaded glade, the trees here grew so thick and close that the Sun's gaze only came through in thin beams of dusty light the bounced off the stones of a dried up stream, the rocks overgrown with grass and wildflowers of red and white that jostled for space with the snow in long sweeping strokes of colour across the rocks and snow like an artist's errant strokes. She gasped, "Wow, this place is… it's beautiful…"

Hingejaw glanced back and followed her as she wandered, dazed into the glade. "How did you even… Does anyone else know about this place?"

"No," he answered, glancing at the holes in the canopy. "I used to come here a lot when I was younger, it's quiet, and at least here we have some privacy."

Her eyes flitted back to him for an instant as she asked, distracted, "Privacy?"

He lay down on the soft pillow of undisturbed snow, watching as Stormfly wandered into the glade, disturbing the sheet of snow into tiny powdery piles with each furtive step. He noted, "Meatlug invited me out to spend some time with your friends."

"Oh," she said. "You, and them? Alone? Nothing like, bad, happened right?"

"Of course not, and I got to meet the Twins there. Barf seems interesting, I don't think Belch much likes me."

Stormfly gave a scoff, expected. The Twins would rarely agree with each other on something. "And Toothless? What about him?"

"He's still giving me the long face, I don't think he's warming up to me anytime soon."

She sighed sadly as she stooped down to inspect a brilliant red flower with snow flecked petals, cocking her head like a bird. Honestly, she wasn't sure how she felt about Toothless, he was her first crush after all but lately he'd been less than supportive of her and colder with each passing Autumn Day. It made her a bit… almost mournful about what she'd lost between them.

"And what else?" Stormfly said to divert her attention. "Meatlug wouldn't just invite you out to have a nice chat."

"No, seems like her whole purpose was to interrogate me to see if you and me… if we could work."

She paused, hesitating a moment before crossing the snowy glade to Hingejaw and laying down infront of him, the snow shockingly cold against her belly. "And?"

"And, I guess I have their blessing."

A sigh of relief, she broke into a smile. She'd been dreading the inevitable conversation Hingejaw would have with the prying Meatlug and the reveal of truths she might not want to hear, but it seemed that the whole thing had resolved itself without her doing anything at all. _Perfect_.

She rolled onto her back so her legs dangled in the air and she looked at an upside down Hingejaw looming over her. He craned his neck down and nibbled her neck affectionately, "I even talked to Toothless after that."

She arched her back like a cat as his voice rumbled through his little nips at her neck into her scales. "And?"

"And I've made peace with him. He made me promise, though, to never, ever hurt you as long as I live."

She closed her eyes as his rumbling voice made her entire form shudder. "I know you'd never do that."

Sharp teeth, now bared, gliding over her scales, hot breath over her cold form. "I'm not sure I can keep that promise."

"Mmmh…" she mumbled without hearing as she felt him travel down her length, across her collar, down each rib, along the curve of her belly and-

"Wait."

Her eyes shot open and she scrambled to her feet to face Hingejaw. "I'm not sure that I want to… to do _it_ yet."

Hingejaw smiled slyly, advancing against and pushing against her slightly, "Relax, don't be afraid. Just let me take the lead."

She shook her head even before she started backing off. "No, no I can't-"

"Shhhh," he whispered as his weight forced her to the snow underfoot. "Don't be afraid."

"No, Hingejaw!" she snapped firmly, squirming away and warily watching him from a distance. "I… maybe we should just take this a bit slower."

His eyes narrowed in frustration, he bristled as he growled lowly, "How much slower do you want to go? I've waited too damn long for what I want!"

Stormfly furrowed her brows, sidling up to HIngejaw. "I don't think I'm ready yet, you understand right? Don't you?"

She looked up at him, his shadowed features dark with the harsh Sun behind him, his deep, fiery eyes looking at her inscrutably. He stayed silent for the longest time, his breaths now shallow and bated against her, his heartbeat fast and excited. His eyes found her's and they stayed where they were for seconds, minutes, hours, days even, it seemed.

Stormfly felt his wings spread and envelop her, his head hanging down next to her's as he hissed, "No such luck."


	9. Fallen Hearts

Next chapter, woot woot, hope you guys enjoy. Next chapter out in the next few days, similarly, I won't keep you from the chapter so read on, enjoy and leave a review if you liked it!

* * *

Stormfly felt Hingejaw's clawed wings tense as he pulled her close, her unsure smile turned to a snarl as his power weighed down upon her. She kicked away from him even as he clenched her to his chest, his claws tearing ugly twin scars across her sides.

Hingejaw curled his angry clutches as he growled, eyeing her like a choice cut. She kept her distance, even as she felt burning blood carve its way down her scales. Her eyes met his and she found a hungry predator there, licking his chops as he followed her movements.

At first, Stormfly was hurt, her heart as if torn down the centre and rent apart. He'd only wanted her for his own pleasure all along, he hadn't loved her, it had all been a lie just to ensnare her. The lovebites, the sweet whispers, the furtive glances when he thought she wasn't looking. Then she was angry, a mind numbing, an all-encompassing fiery shriek that blotted out everything else. _How dare he? I actually thought that he loved me, a lie, always a lie!_

Hingejaw began to circle her, and she followed suit, spreading her wings and raising her spines as she hissed. He moved slowly, deliberately, watching her intensely with his hooded eyes, and she did the same, not wanting to let him get behind her. He stopped suddenly, and with a start she realised that the entrance to the glade was right behind him, the other sides of the clearing were walled off by thick columns of evergreens and snow-buried boulders.

_I'll kill him_, she mumbled bitterly and internally._ I'll rip his heart out, I'll sink my teeth into his neck and dig my claws into his ribs-_

He advanced a single step and she felt jumped back, startled, flaring her wings' vibrant colours and snarling. He growled menacingly, "Afraid?"

Another step.

_He's keeping the exit to his back so I can't escape. _The thought brought a jolt of panic that was quickly extinguished. Her eyes flitted about, _Okay, think… _

Hingejaw wasn't scared or worried in the slightest, he knew there was no way he could lose in a fight. Stormfly knew this was probably true, but she wasn't about to back down now. _Come on, come at me. I'll rip you apart in two seconds. _

Her eyes flitted up to the canopy, the branches were tight knit and packed with snow but with a bit of fire she could break through one of the larger gaps in it. Just maybe…

HIngejaw read her expression, advancing further. "Go on then, I love it when they try to run."

"Could you get any creepier?" She backed up and her tail scraped against the trees behind her. This situation was just a bit unfortunate. Just a bit.

_I hope someone followed us_, she mused worriedly. _Maybe Toothless. I could really use his help right now. _

Her eyes darted up to the canopy again. Maybe if she was fast enough...

Hingejaw began to lean back on his haunches as he leaned back into a pounce.

_On second-hand, no, I don't think I could save both of us._

* * *

"Missing?"

Toothless raised an eyebrow at Meatlug as she looked at him quizzically. "How do you lose track of Stormfly? Wasn't she supposed to meet us today?"

"She's got her own plans, 'hun, off somewhere doing something," Meatlug said dismissively.

Until very recently, Toothless had been on the ground in front of Hiccup's hut in a very comfortable position on a patch of ground where he'd melted away the snow. Hookfang was up on the roof, reclining lazily as he scratched a dozen scars into the woodwork, Meatlug had dragged Barf and Belch along with her.

"Doesn't she tell you everything?" Toothless interrogated almost accusingly.

"Oh posh, 'hun, you've got to relax. She'll be safe."

Barf grinned evilly, "Oh, is the little Nightfury salty?"

Toothless gave a tiny sigh, muttering, "I'm not salty…"

"I'm sorry what was that?" she asked haughtily.

Belch nipped his sister's long neck. "Lay off him."

"I'll lay you off," Barf hissed.

"_That_ doesn't make sense."

"_You_ don't make sense."

Hookfang called down from the roof, "Uh, hello? Someone's trying to sleep here and I don't like getting headaches."

"That's a great suggestion," Belch nodded in agreement. "How about you shut up, sis?"

"Now there's something I can get behind," Hookfang sighed.

"Can it, Nightmare, one tumour's enough," Barf shouted.

Meatlug rolled her eyes in a way that said: God, these immature little brats… She snuggled into a pile of snow that rose up to her chin and said, "You've got to have faith in Stormfly. She can take care of herself. She's got Hingejaw to keep her safe anyway."

_And that's why I'm worried. _

Hookfang quite suddenly called down to them, "Hey, Toothless, mind going out back with me? Got a bone to pick."

Toothless groaned, "Can it wait? I've been sitting here a long time and I don't feel like getting up."

"Let me say that again. Hey Toothless, mind going out back?"

His tone was obvious now. The Nightfury got the message and got up, nodding to Meatlug and the bickering Twins. "I'll only be a minute."

Toothless winced at the feeling of his weary joints popping, half-wading and half-loping through the knee-high snow around the side of Hiccup's house to the back, facing the way out of Berk to the forest. Hookfang slid down the side of the roof and dove down to the ground, making a little mountain of snow as it cushioned his fall.

The Nightmare had been out of sorts the past few days, he'd put their escapades on hold and seemed quiet, distracted whenever they were together, joking much less, but up close his condition was much more obvious. His red scales were slightly discoloured from the cold, the black spots on the scales were slightly grey. He hadn't been eating well.

Toothless asked with concern, "You all right, Hookfang? You don't look too…"

Hookfang looked up, "Oh, yeah, it's all…" he cleared his throat. "I'm good. It's about uh, it's Hingejaw. A few days ago, I met him and he uh, he said he had a surprise for Stormfly."

Toothless furrowed his brows. _Cryptic_.

"I didn't think anything of it then," Hookfang admitted. "But, now Meatlug says she's missing, gone without saying a thing, and I was just thinking what if…"

He shook his head, looking away and muttering something.

The Nightmare's friend asked with a tinge of fear, "What is it? What?"

"I used to think that you were stupid for being hung up on her," Hookfang muttered. "Sad to say I know why now. The Forest, he said that his surprise would be in private, and that she'd have it whether she wanted to or..."

A knowing glance later and Toothless caught the drift real quickly. _Oh god._

* * *

There it is. God, the speed at which Bol works is, honestly, frightening, I'm struggling to keep up with her. Her attitude's infectious, I find myself looking forward to our writing sessions together and counting the hours till then. Ugh, sorry for the general abstract-ness of this author's note, it's pretty late this side of the world, hope you enjoyed the chapter, leave a review if you liked it and goodnight everybody!


	10. A Part of Me

So, if you can't tell, this chapter took quite a while to write, and that was because of a plague of writer's block. It came eventually though, hopefully it's readable.

* * *

Hingejaw laughed, "This is fun."

Stormfly growled down at him, his jaw around her ankle as she beat her wings furiously, aiming herself at a hole in the canopy of pine bushels. Then he gave a snarl and yanked her to the ground, sending her tumbling into a grove of wildflowers that grew through the snow.

She scrambled to her feet, watching the larger Nadder warily. He puffed out a cloud of smoke that made the snow above melt into little droplets that cling onto the pine needles. He was stronger than her, faster than her. She should've known from the start, this wasn't her versus him. This was him playing with his food.

She snarled, "I'll rip your throat out if you-"

He gave a growl and gave a lunge, making her jump back and colliding with the wall of trees. Hingejaw smiled at her fear, "Come on, I love a struggle."

_I can't win_, Stormfly thought to herself with a sinking feeling in her chest. Though she hated the thought, she knew that at this point it was her only chance. _I need to run. _

Even still there was another voice in her that snarled and snapped. _She_ was a predator, _she_ was a hunter. And if he thought that she would roll over and show her belly, he was greatly mistaken.

The entrance to the Glade was behind Hingejaw, and he kept it that way. The hole in the canopy would be easy to claw through if she had a few seconds to spare. But time wasn't a luxury he allowed her.

_ Let's have another go at this. _

* * *

Toothless yelped as his sail clinked shut, sending him into a spiralling free fall downwards as he flapped his wings frantically. Branches and snowy bushels slammed into him as he fell, before he face planted in a pile of snow.

He scrambled away, spitting out a mouthful of snow and dead leaves in disgust. He looked up at the hole he'd torn in the rooftop of laced branches, he'd left about five of those holes in the forest roof on his way here. It had been nearly half an hour since he'd left the rest without telling them a thing in his haste.

_Stupid, stupid_.

He was useless, he couldn't fly, he couldn't find her. What use was a Dragon if he couldn't fly?

_Should I go back for Hiccup? Without him I can't-_

Too late. He knew that if he went back he might be too late.

Hookfang had not said where Hingejaw would take Stormfly to in the Forest, just that he would for his 'surprise'. He didn't know where to start and at his pace he might take hour, but if he could fly it would take him mere minutes to cover the entire island.

Toothless looked back at his tail sail, freely bouncing open and shut. The red sail seemed to taunt him as it smiled a crimson grin at him, the metal hinge gleaming in the Winter Sun. _What use is a Dragon who can't fly? _

He looked back up at the gap in the canopy, snow was lightly drifting down through the gap now and he could see the sky framed by branches. Up there, in the Sun's brilliant light, that was where he belonged, that was where he needed to be right now.

The Nightfury glanced down at the sail attached to his tail, the rope that connected it to the mechanism that Hiccup used to operate it. As he did, he felt a pang in his chest at the idea he held. This _was_ a part of him. This was his tie to Hiccup, it might as well have been a tether between two souls rather than two creatures missing a foot and a sail.

But he looked up to the sky. His sail was a part of him, but so was she.

With a snarl he twisted his jaws down and around to the side of his saddle where Hiccup would put his metal foot to control his metal sail, biting down lightly and pulling the sail taut, before crunching the metal between his teeth so it was bent shut and jammed together, forcing the sail to remain open.

Toothless shook his tail a few times, the sail barely jiggled. It was stuck in this one position and he wouldn't be able to do any crazy stunts, but he could fly.

The Nightfury's gaze floated up to the canopy, he leaned back on his hind legs and spread his wings. With a single pump he threw up a great cloud of snow and leaves that floated around and clung to him as he tucked his wings in and shot through the hole he'd already tunnelled through once into the air, spreading his wings again as he flew. He was unstable and uncertain at first, but soon all the familiar movements came back to him. This was in his blood, in his muscles, in his skin and in his bones. This, shooting through the air, heart racing and eyes stinging from the wind. This was him.

His eyes scanned the endless Forest of the island and he opened his mouth, roaring, "Stormfly!"

* * *

She heard it, a faint, far away and whinny cry that barely registered.

Stormfly looked up quizzically at the thinning in the canopy, almost in amazement. Another voice, especially a familiar one, wasn't something she expected to hear this far out. "How did he-"

Hingejaw growled aloud, snarling, "That snitching little lizard. Your friends are loyal, I'll give you that."

For all his grumbling, she was hardly listening, instead she opened her mouth to roar. "Too-"

In an instant, Hingejaw had lunged across the gap between them and slammed into her, pinning her neck down with one hind leg, forcing her into the snow and making her gasp for air. "You really want to do that?"

He twisted his foot and forced her to look up at him, his shadow enveloping her and his eyes, fiery and golden like burning bronze, the only stars of light she saw. He growled, "Go on then, call him. I'll kill him, and then we're back to square one."

She sneered at him, trying to force out another snarling retort but the pressure on her throat increased a bit. Hingejaw bared his teeth, leaning in and quietly, mockingly whispering, "What's the matter? Go on then, roar, cry, scream for help. Struggle."

His breath, hot and bated against the scales of her neck.

"I love it when they struggle."

Stormfly's eyes narrowed. She growled, slowly and with much difficulty, her eyes locked onto his. "Burn."

She puffed up her chest and her smoke began to smoulder from the edges of her jaws. Her legs kicked up and left deep scars on Hingejaw's belly as her claws slammed into his belly and her jaws opened and let loose a bolt of fire, hot, condensed flames of blinding white. It clipped the edge of his crown, blackening a few of his spikes and scorching a patch of scales.

Hingejaw slammed down his weight upon her, painfully, trapping her completely under him as he snarled, "You know, you're a very cute lass, but not a good shot."

Her eyes glanced past his head, at the hole in the canopy her fire had torn, the branches and needles still burning and the snow melting and dripping down like rain. The bolt was high above now, a brilliant bolt of radiance against the blue sky with a tail of crimson flames, impossible to miss. _Wasn't aiming for you, asshole._

* * *

Well then, that's chapter ten, _dieci_, _dixième_, _zehn_, leave a review on what you thought and have a very beautiful day.


	11. Burning White

Well, this took a long time to write, almost twice as many words as my other chapters. I won't keep you away from the chapter, so read on then.

* * *

Stormfly writhed underneath his weight, Hingejaw's oppressive heat bearing down unbearably on her as each shift in his weight made her wince. He bared his teeth as he leaned his face in close so that she could see the pale indents in that little white scar he had under his eye, growling, "Go on then, spit some fire at me. Try it."

His snout was inches from her's, so she did the sensible thing and lunged, biting down it. Hard.

Her jaws made a satisfying, solid impact against his as her teeth bit through his scales and skin and struck the bone underneath. Hingejaw roared with pain, jerking his head away as she squirmed and tried to weasel away, but he only clamped down harder, snarling, "You… you little bitch."

"That's not a nice way to talk to your girl," she hissed through a coating of his blood on her teeth, splattering his scales with steaming red flecks.

Hingejaw glared back at her, visage contorted in fury. Stormfly looked with no little pride at the ring of red teeth marks, each half an inch deep, bored past his scales and each with a trail of blood that slid down the sides of his face and dripped down the curve of his neck. "You think you're funny? You think screwing with me is funny?"

"Actually-" Stormfly barely had a chance to react before he bent down and sank his own teeth into her shoulder above her wing, she roared in pain and tried to kick him away but he had her legs pinned down by his own, a clawed foot around an ankle and digging into her knee. He snarled as he stepped off her and lifted her like a ragdoll with his jaws.

She grimaced as she felt a tearing, burning pain arc across her as it felt as if her own weight was tearing her apart, Hingejaw biting down hard on her, his teeth shearing through muscle and sliding against bone. She felt her own blood, hot and viscous that drew long lines down her scales, her eyes became clouded with tears as she affixed his, seeing in them a furious, burning hunger and fire, and she spat vehemently, "You want me to beg, huh? To sob and beg for mercy? Is that what turns you on?"

Hingejaw gave a grunt and threw her to the ground, her blood dripping onto the snow where each sanguine drop melted through the pristine powder into its own little crater. "Yes, it is."

She tried to struggle to her feet to at least look him in the eye but he knocked her over, pressing down on the jawbite around her shoulder, making her snarl and twist in pain. He grinned, "I want you to know, that I'm going to enjoy every moment of making you scream."

Stormfly narrowed her eyes at him, or rather at a point in the sky next to his head. And she said, slowly, deliberately, "Screw you."

A tiny whistle, almost inaudible at first, but climbing steadily to a low scream. Hingejaw looked around in confusion, before his face slackened in realisation as the Nightfury's roar came to a crescendo.

Hingejaw began to spread his wings to take flight but it was already too late. A soft boom and an explosion later, a blossom of smoke and blue light exploded on Hingejaw's back, sending him rolling away into the snow and colliding against the trees on the side of the Glade.

Stormfly smiled and nearly cried for joy, a soaring feeling in her chest as if her heart wanted to break free. _He came for me, he actually came for me. _

Toothless' shadow spread its wings as it tried to slow its descent, but he obviously couldn't fly solo. He spiralled out of control, tucking his wings in at the last moment as he smashed a hole through the canopy, landing in a shower of snow and broken branches.

A smile, and she laughed, despite circumstances, "Nailed the landing."

* * *

His mouth still stung and the acrid taste of fire hung on his tongue as he disentangled himself from the wreckage of broken canopy and with a shiver he shed a coat of snow and needles. He looked around, a clearing in the forest, walled off, smoke curled up from Hingejaw's form at one side as he-

There she was.

Stormfly was on the ground, a ring of toothmarks bored deep into her right shoulder from where burning red blood dripped and struck the snow, mixing with the colourful wildflowers trampled under her scales. She tried to get to her feet but one of her legs was bloodied at the knee and couldn't seem to straighten out properly as she fell face first into the snow, scrabbling back up to her feet.

His vision seemed to tunnel in on her, the bloodied and battered Dragon just meters away, the world seemed to melt away, the trees, the snow, the sky and the smoke all faded away. It was just him, her, and the distance between them.

She called out in a hoarse voice, "Toothless!"

He choked at the sound as he loped towards her side, beginning to babble even before he reached her side, "You're hurt! Did he do this to you? There's so much… so much blood, what do we do? What do we-"

Stormfly pressed her crown against his, smiling, "You came for me. I didn't think anyone would, but you came for me."

"Well I uh-"

She pulled away and he realised that her teeth were filmed with blood. The Dragon in front of him had scales that were bruised and beaten, one of her legs was held at an angle and blood coated her front as she struggled to stay afoot. She was infinitely beautiful, even now, perhaps more so, fierce, adamant, inextinguishable as she pressed her head against his.

"You came for me."

"I- of course I did."

He felt a flutter as she rumbled a deep, contented growl of contention as she leaned against him for support.

"Touching."

Toothless turned his head towards the snarl. Hingejaw watched them from a distance, his beautiful, viridian and scarlet scales blackened and charred, thin lines of smoke rising from his spikes as he rose. He spread his wings and shed a coat of ash, snarling, "Clipped me good, Runt. Now if you don't want to get your throat gouged out, I suggest you back off and walk away."

He growled, "You promised me you wouldn't hurt her."

HIngejaw laughed without the usual smooth, crystal voice of his, a harsh and mirthless sound rasped from his throat. "_Promise_? You're such a naïve little kid, I 'lied', you know that's a thing?"

Toothless' teeth shot out with a dry sliding sound. "I'll kill you, I'll bleed you dry for what you did."

Hingejaw stood adamant. "The only promise in this world is that the strong eat the weak."

His crown of blackened spikes rose. "And I eat the strong."

As he reared back to charge, Toothless glanced to Stormfly. "So what's the plan?"

"Aren't you the one rescuing me?"

"I didn't really come here with a-"

A roar.

"How about this, we round this bastard up and we go home."

"Sounds like a plan."

* * *

Toothless leaped over Stormfly with a single beat of his wings and collided with a charging Hingejaw, the larger Dragon's weight stopping the Night Fury dead in his tracks and falling to the snow. As he reared his head back to clamp down on Toothless, Stormfly shot a blast of white hot flames that seared his side, before she lunged forward and sank her teeth into his haunch.

He roared and backpedalled furiously, Toothless leaped up against and tried to latch his jaws onto the larger Dragon's throat as Stormfly bit down harder on his leg, trying to pin down his foot with her own claws. He yowled in pain, falling on his side and crushing Toothless under him, before sending the Nigthfury flying back with a kick to the chest and a three clawed scar on his scales.

Stormfly relinquished her bite as he lunged down at her, bobbing to the side as he bit again and again, jaws closing over empty air. Her eyes widened in surprise as one of his legs shot out and swept her's out from under her, making her tumble into a crumpled heap on the ground.

He stood over her, she tried to push him off but he savagely stamped down on her already wounded knee. "You like to run? You like to fight back?"

He twisted his claw and her leg twisted sharply to one side with an audible snap. She grimaced and bit her tongue to stifle a scream, as he hissed she felt hot blood and spittle against her neck, "Here we are again. Don't you get it? There's no other way this could possibly end, you are my property! You're mine!"

A roar as Toothless tackled Hingejaw from the side, slamming hard into the intimidating Dragon. The Night Fury reared his head back, his green eyes wild with fury and a new scar along the side of his cheek and down the side of his neck, dark blood almost inscrutable against black scale. He puffed up his chest, there was a sharp hush, like the forest was silenced and the air was flushed from her lungs as the Night Fury opened his jaws and a blue glow appeared at the back of his throat. She heard a whistle, like a faraway scream.

Hingejaw growled and pounced, biting into black scales and shearing through bone and muscle. A roar. She called, "Toothless!"

He looked at her, his face a contorted visage of fear and pain as Hingejaw pushed him down to the ground, pinning him down with a single claw planted firmly on him. She tried to push herself up with her wings but her right knee screamed out with a blunt, fiery pain that made her spines stand on end, making her collapse and gasp for air. "Toothless!"

"J-Just, don't worry, I got this under," he gave a strangled bated rasp as Hingejaw leaned down. He finished in a voice several octaves higher, "-control…"

Hingejaw glanced back at her and she could almost imagine the twisted pleasure radiating off him. "This one's for you."

His jaws opened and she saw his chest lit from within by an inner glow that travelled up his throat to his maw, angled straight at Toothless' face as he tried to pull away.

_Not him, don't…_

He wouldn't hurt him. Stormfly wouldn't let him.

She shifted her foot under her body, nearly falling apart as she felt an intense flame arc up her leg, in an instant the world seemed to become hot and fetid, the desperate pounding of her heart and pumping of her blood in her veins the only sound to her as she tried to stay afoot. Hingejaw puffed up his chest and pulled his head back.

_No_. White spots appeared in her eyes as she took a step, the pain was making her gasp and stagger for breaths she couldn't catch. As she stumbled backwards she felt a dull scraping in her broken knee as mangled bones tried to fit back together.

Stormfly looked up and saw Hingejaw, without a tint of guilt as smoke began to curl from the corners of his mouth. The ends of her's curled and her jaw set in defiance as she looked. "Not him. Don't you dare."

* * *

Hingejaw hissed around a mouthful of smoke, "I've got to make an example to the little lady. Hope you understand."

Toothless tried to claw him but he steered his neck high out of the way, leaning his weight upon the little Dragon again. "Glad we could come to an understanding."

"There's no need to do anything drastic, if you kill me, two-legs will come looking. They'll find Stormfly and once she says your name-"

"That's the thing. They'd have to find her first, and I plan to keep her very safe once we're done here. Very safe."

As the Nadder drew a great breath in to stoke the coals of a flame, Toothless tried to do the same but every little sliver of air in his chest he tried to store up for a bolt of fire was forced out by the pressure on his ribs.

Hingejaw's chest and throat swelled in size and the cracks between the scales began to glow orange and red. Toothless' struggling became more frantic, he lunged and bit frantically at the legs and scales that were just out of reach, trying to force the insurmountable weight off of him. "Don't-"

A deep growling in Hingejaw's chest as he reared his head back like a snake poising to strike, the underside of his jaw seeming to smoke as the frost on his scales burnt off in thin trails of steam.

_I guess this is it. It was a good run… I guess. _

Toothless was afraid, he didn't deny it, getting burnt to death wasn't number one on his list of ways to die, which he'd hastily thought of just moments ago. Especially by a Nadder, they had particularly hot flames.

He closed his eyes and looked away, his cheek pressing into the cool snow. At least he should relish the cold before the heat came.

But it never did.

Instead there was a crunching of bone and a strangled gasp. Toothless opened his eyes and saw an amazing thing, the shadow of two Nadders blocking out the Sun's glare above, one with its teeth on the other's throat.

Stormfly had her jaws wrapped around Hingejaw's throat, biting down and making his face contort in pain. She'd trudged more than a dozen metres with one of her legs broken and dragging uselessly behind her. She snarled around the muscles between her teeth, "Not him. Don't. You. Dare."

Hingejaw's eyes widened. Toothless watched in wonder as she twisted his neck in her grip sharply to the side and the fire he'd already primed loosing and carving an arc of snow into water and slush and burning the trunks of a line of trees black. She advanced again, making Hingejaw's grip on Toothless slip off as she forced his neck down. His legs tried to kick her and grazed her side a few times and his wings scrabbled uselessly on her scales.

Stormfly bit down harder, drawing thick Dragon's blood that mixed with the melted snow, one of his claws collided with her side and drew a thick set of scars into her flank to add to the list, but instead of flinching in pain she proceeded another step as she forced his neck lower and he was now stooping, trying to shake her vice off. His jaws snapped uselessly at a target that he could never reach with her grip on his neck.

She growled a wordless word that dripped with emotion, betrayal, hate, defiance, love. Hingejaw landed another kick, before she slammed him into the snow, tightening her bite as he made a strangled face and gave a snarl, "I'll… I'll kill you, bitch."

She bit down again and his face strained for air, soon he could only manage a choked whine, "You…"

And soon he couldn't say anything, instead just kicking and writhing weakly in the snow and slush, kicking it around as Stormfly stood tall over him, face affixed in savagery as she forced the life out of him.

Toothless got up, watching warily as Stormfly made a wild, feral noise like a wolf and Hingejaw's struggling soon slowed to a halt, his strangled gasps disappearing altogether, but she did not relent.

He called softly, "Stormfly, let go, you've won."

But she didn't seem to hear, in fact she tightened her jaw's grip even more, forcing more blood out onto the snow, making Hingejaw's body jerk spasmodically.

"Stormfly."

Her eyes glanced up at him, before flicking back down.

"Stormfly!"

Stormfly seemed to register his words at long last, her bite slackening as looked down, in a mix of horror and fierce pride, at the neck her teeth were buried in, at the blood that flowed over her chin. She let Hingejaw slide out, landing in the white and red, stepping back as the blood that wasn't her's mingled with the blood that was, sliding down her neck and across her chest.

She looked up at Toothless, her eyes wide, her appearance scarred a thousand times and her beautiful scales shrouded in red. She watched him, one moment the image of a proud predator over a fresh kill, the next shocked at what she'd done. "I didn't… I just lost control…"

Toothless slid up to her side, whispering, "It's okay."

"I… I didn't mean to, I swear, I was just so- so…"

He looked down at Hingejaw, lying on the ground, chest rising in sporadic pants. Then back at Stormfly, shaken.

Toothless whispered, "Let's go home."

* * *

Welp, this arc is coming to an end in probably a chapter or two, we finally got through this major scene and the climax in the story. Leave a review on what you thought, and until next time, adios.


	12. Reflections

Hello, everybody, PassiveBot here, chapter 12 is out and I hope you enjoy it! Please leave a review on what you thought and enjoy the story!

* * *

Stormfly looked at her reflection in the ice and sleet that caked the side of Astrid's hut, her image made wavy and distorted in the mirrored surface. Little flakes of snow landed against the ice, hiding her face in little white blooms, her breath fogged in front of her eyes and melted the snow off a little patch of ice into tiny droplets that ran down, leaving trails that froze behind them.

She inspected her reflection, looking to one side and baring her neck, revealing a ring of deep bite wounds that wound its way around her right shoulder and across her chest, the half-healed wounds a deep red and black. The humans' wise woman, Gothi they called her, had worked her practice on Stormfly's fetid wounds at the time, stemming the bleeding and soothing the inflamed flesh.

"It'll scar, dear," came a motherly voice from behind. Meatlug, the squat Dragon buried up to her chin. "The scales'll around it will grow right back, cover it up a bit."

Her eyes glanced down at the other wounds of her's, a set of claw marks across her side, more on the other, a set of claw marks on her shins and her calves where Hingejaw had pinned her down.

Another voice, Barf, the conjoined sister said optimistically, "You know, some Dragons like scars."

"Well I'm not one of those Dragons," Stormfly responded, running her eyes up and down her length. The wounds were exceptionally cold in this weather, she could feel each cut and gash, icy on her scales. She sighed as she ticked off the mental list of wounds, coming down to the most dreaded one. _Wings. _

Stormfly glanced backwards at her friends, Meatlug and the Twins, ensuring that they hid her from the traffic of screeching and roaring Dragons and humans in the village, before she spread her wings.

She nearly looked away from the sight of her tattered and ruined wings, where it should have been full, magnolia and viridian, shimmering iridescent in the Winter Sun, the skin was ripped and shredded. The edges were frayed and tattered, the skin between the spokes of her wing were filled with ragged holes and gashes through which the light streamed through in shafts and the wind chilled the skin around each tear.

As the silence grew, Meatlug ventured, "Well… it looks much better than yesterday."

_I look disgusting_, she realised with a disheartening lull, not for the first time either. She glanced back to make sure no one else other than her friends was watching. "I look like a baitfish, don't I?"  
"No, you look beautiful," Barf stated firmly, leaving no room for debate. She glared pointedly at her sleeping brother, jostling him awake. Belch blinked blearily, nodding without understanding, "Mmhmm, yeah, positively peachy, darling."

Stormfly knew one thing about herself and that was that she was vain, she loved how she looked, she revelled in her beauty and the power it could have. But now she only felt like an ugly little thing, small, weak, tiny, vulnerable. _This should have stopped when I left the forest_.

Meatlug waddled up slightly, nudging her side. "Don't worry bout the reflection, 'hun, chin up. You're beautiful and you're looking leagues better than yesterday."

"That ain't saying much."

Barf leaned in and encouraged, "Sister, we mean it. You just need a smile to wear, that's all."

Stormfly followed quietly, watching the image in the ice straighten up, puff her chest out and look back sweetly through the cold. Barf sat back. "There. Beautiful."

But the thing in the mirrored surface seemed alien, estranged from her, in the ice sheet she could hardly see the wounds and rends on that reflection through the frost, the Nadder that looked back at her was sweet, innocent, hopeful, beautiful. That wasn't her, at least it didn't feel like her anymore.

She saw her reflection fall apart again, her shoulders sagging and her head dipping in defeat. She glanced back at their concerned faces and felt a pang of guilt. She smiled sadly, "Thanks for coming down here every day, I'm sorry you all can't see it but it really helps."

"Anything, 'hun, we look out for family."

She noticed Barf nudging her brother again, the one who reluctantly, and involuntarily, followed his sister here to outside Astrid's hut every day to nurse Stormfly back to health, looked up at his other half irately. After the two of them exchanged a series of silent, mouthed insults and glares, he piped up, "So uh, Stormfly. I think it's pretty clear you're not-… you could be better."

_Right_. Barf glared at her brother angrily, but Belch continued, "But the thing is, we don't care. You're the same Stormfly we all know and love, you'll always be beautiful to us."

A scrunching of snow from behind, Stormfly tucked her wings to her sides in panic, spinning around so her back was to Astrid's hut. A black shadow against the white snow, landing face first into a mound of soft powder, a rider-less Nightfury with his tail waving uselessly in the air, one sail black and the other a newly repaired red sail, connected to a saddle.

Stormfly looked at Toothless and felt the grey washed out of her heart as she watched him remove himself from the snow.

Toothless mumbled as he shook off a few clumps of snow that still clung to him. His eyes, green and sharp as ever, were wide with concern as they met her's, and he said, "Hi."

_Such a flair for the dramatic_.

He was a little black splash of paint on the snow, the scar of a clawed footprint on his chest and a bite mark on the underside of his chin, pale flecks on his scales. Barf set her jaw indignantly and growled, "She needs her rest, the two-legs magic-worked said she needs to-"

"It's fine!" Stormfly hastily said, glancing meaningfully at her friends. "I mean it, it's _really_ fine."

Barf looked quizzically back, "You sure?"

She talked like Toothless was going to attack her the moment the Twin turned her back. But Meatlug understood the meaning, nudging the siblings. "Come on, let's give these two a bit of privacy."

Barf left with her glare still affixed accusingly on Toothless, "If he gives you trouble, just give a call. I'll be waiting."

Belch, on the other hand, whispered hastily to the Nightfury in hushed tones, "_Please, help me! I can't take this anymore, it's so boring. Please!"_

"Come on, _brother_," Barf hissed, dragging Belch's reluctant half away.

Stormfly gave a little laugh, before scooting over and offering Toothless a spot. A moment later she realised how stupid that was, they were literally on an empty field of snow next to Astrid's hut, but Toothless took the invitation and sat down next to her, a visible tremor passing up his spine as a drop of sleet bounced off his side, running down the shallow wound of teeth marks on his neck. He shivered, "Cold morning."

"That's Berk for you," she answered, conscious of his eyes glancing down to her wings as she tucked them to her side tightly and tried to hide them behind the snow.

He dug out a little depression in the snow to sit, tail swishing from side to side and displacing the powder in little puffs. She glanced at him and saw him look away hurriedly, eyes wandering around.

Stormfly smirked, looking down. "I just uh, wanted to thank you for coming for me. I'd just about given up hope until I heard you out there, looking for me."

Toothless gave an awkward chuckle, "Of course, friends look out for each other."

_But friends don't risk their lives like you did._ She didn't say it but he could see her meaning in her glance. He shifted nervously, "It was nothing, really, and I did a pretty rubbish job of it anyways."

Stormfly tried to cover up her scars self consciously, "Oh please, before you came it was a rather flattering show of me getting batted around."

"Ah, at least after I came it was me getting beat up." He smiled and glanced at her, "Toothless: bona fide punching bag."

She laughed, actually gave a short little laugh of real joy. The sound gave her some pause, the mirth and sharpness of it, that clear sound which she'd forgotten so quickly. She shifted deeper into the snow, unsure… of something that she couldn't place.

She shivered and shook off a coat of snow that had accumulated on her shoulders, glancing up as she heard the roar of a Monstrous Nightmare somewhere far away. She wondered where Hookfang was, she hadn't heard from him lately. The Nadder didn't make eye contact as she hear the Nightfury begin, "So, how's the uh, cuts?"

Hmph, "That's putting it lightly."

"Okay, I'm trying my best to be subtle at this."

She smiled again. "Well, Meatlug says they'll scar, but the scales should grow back and that'll hide most of it. But until then," she looked down at the ring of jagged tooth marks on her chest, trying to hide it from him. "I guess I'll have to live with being ugly."

Toothless scoffed, hardly the response she expected and she looked up in surprise as he guffawed, "Don't kid yourself, you couldn't be ugly if you tried."

"Yeah?" She looked into his eyes, they were beautiful, slanted orbs of life and light in a canvas of darkness, bright and hopeful. "So… if I'm not ugly, care to tell me what I am?"

"Oh, uh…" Toothless made a cute face as he got choked up. "Uh, yeah, you're… very uh."

Stormfly leaned in, gleeful in her torture of him. "Yeah?"

"Uh-"

The snow scrunched as a human trudged up the path towards them, a girl wrapped up in a cloak of fur-lined hide, her long blonde braided tails bouncing on her shoulders with the wind.

Stormfly felt a warm stirring in her already glowing heart as she saw her rider walk up the path. Astrid looked up, grinning, "So how's my big strong girl?"

The Nadder loped forward a single step as Astrid lunged, wrapping her thin human arms around her Dragon's neck, yelping as she lifted her off the ground a moment before setting her down. Stormfly nudged the human with her snout, "You're a horrible human, you know? Leaving me for so long."

Humans couldn't understand what Dragons said, of course, but Astrid was different, she could understand, like Hiccup. She laughed, running her hand down Stormfly's snout. "Someone's in a good mood."

Astrid paused a moment as she saw the wounds, hands balling into fists, before relaxing. She turned to Toothless, looking the Nightfury up and down as he leaned in and nibbled a lock of her hair. The human pushed him away, smiling, "Hiccup's looking for you and he's frantic. Aren't you two supposed to be looking for the Nadder that did… this?"

He gave a reluctant whine and Stormfly called, "I think I'm spent for the morning anyway, go and find Hiccup."

"Fine," he replied in mock exasperation. "

Stormfly paused before she left, turning to see Toothless walking back into Berk with a noticeable bounce in his step. She called, "Hey, if you're ever, you know, free, why don't you come by. It'll be uh, nice, to have someone to talk to."

He didn't mention that she had Meatlug to give her company, and Barf and Belch and Astrid. He only called back to her amicably, "Yes ma'am! Whatever you say!"


	13. Something Different, Something New

Hi, Bol here, so here's the finale for, arc 1? Book 1? I don't know, but here's the ending to the whole Hingejaw story. I wanted to wrap it up with another Stormfly pov chapter since we started the whole story with a Toothless chapter. So, without further ado, here's chapter 13.

A **notice** for any of our many very prolific fans, me and PassiveBot would like to offer you all a chance to help in the continuation of this story. More info down below.

* * *

Stormfly was, as Dragons come and go, relatively respectful of humans. She tried not to call them 'two-legs' as far as she could and tried to offer the pitiful little creatures her utmost patience, but it was strained sometimes with how ignorant and deaf the humans were. Astrid was one of the few exceptions, the girl was intuitive, she could understand what her Dragon meant not by what she said but by how she acted, how she carried herself, bobbed her head or whatnot. At least most of the time, but she was far better company than other humans.

And so on the morning of the fifteenth day of the second month of Winter, four weeks since the forest, Stormfly sat in Astrid's hut. The windows rattled by the evening blizzards that had become commonplace recently and from under the door came occasional sprays of white that floated like stray wisps in the air. Astrid had just returned from an unsuccessful search for Hingejaw in the snow, sitting on the edge of her bed in her frozen fur cloak. Stormfly glanced out the window at the snowstorm, muttering, "Horrible weather, huh?"

Astrid pulled off her cloak, the whole thing remaining in one piece like a frozen plank of wood, and she slammed it over her knee in an effort to break the frost. "If last year's anything to go by, it's going to be like this all the way to Spring." She removed her white-washed boots and tapped them against the ground, spilling out a galleon of snow onto the ground. "Hopefully it'll let up for a few days at least, would suck to miss Snoggletog because of the snow."

_That means no more flying. _Stormfly had wanted to test out her wings, the scars seemed to be healing alright, at least they didn't look that red and welty anymore. Most of the shallow wounds had healed over and were but pale-pink lines painted on her skin. The bite wound on her shoulder had been particularly troubling, the past few days it had grown red and disturbingly glossy but now it seemed to be fine, or as fine as it could get. Her wings as well, some of the smaller holes had healed, leaving strange pale spots in her wings, but the larger ones were still ringed red and Astrid had been talking of bringing her to the old wise-woman, Gothi, to have it stitched up.

Hingejaw seemed like such a faraway thing now, her friends visiting every day until the snow storms started helped immensely. Meatlug had been particularly helpful, the squat little motherly Dragon that had fretted endlessly over her, then Barf, who had grown fiercely protective, and Belch who had grown increasingly desperate to escape. Hookfang rarely dropped by for their sessions, and when he did he seemed out of sorts, she suspected he was having problems of his own. Then there was Toothless, she found comfort in him, ever since the forest she felt safe around him, remembering what he'd done to save her just gave her a warm feeling in her chest.

As if on cue there was a scrabbling of claws against the door, startling Stormfly as she turned around. Astrid's hand hovered over her axe, propped against her bed, and she mused aloud, "In this weather?"

_Must be important_. Astrid got up, crossing the room cautiously. She opened the door a crack and a fraction of the blizzard gushed in, making her blond hair whip wildly in the wind and making Stormfly squint as the wind stung her eyes. The howling wind was deafening but she saw Astrid smile and shout above the squall, "Looks like you've got a visitor!"

She let go of the door and the storm forced it open, with the snow came Toothless, his black scales smothered in white and the tips of his wings and tail crowned with icy shards. He shuffled in, leaving a trail of snow on the wood as Astrid slammed the door shut behind him, silencing the storm again.

A tremor travelled down Toothless' length and the snow left his body in a shower, making Astrid laugh as she held up a hand to shield her eyes, patting the Nightfury's side, "Oh Toothless, must have been hell getting here."

"Damn right," the Nightfury grimaced, shaking off a few more stray specks of snow.

Stormfly took a sharp breath as she looked at him, shivering and cold as he was, eyes lighting up as they met her's. He shook off a last bit of snow before starting, "Uh, you said to come if I was free and… yeah."

She glanced at the window. "In this weather? That was…"

"Heroic? Sacrificial?" He offered, puffing out his chest.

The Dragon was still shivering like a wind chime, dispelling much of the effect. Stormfly laughed, "Well I was going for something more like 'stupid' or 'foolish', but I guess that's close enough."

"Oh har, har." Toothless said in a tone that was hardly sarcastic, crawling over and taking a seat by her.

Astrid smirked, removing the last article of a frozen outfit leaving her in an un-frozen tunic, throwing the icy overcoat to one corner to defrost by the morn. "Well you two lovebirds can stay up and fraternise all you like, I'm going to sleep."

Stormfly gave a growl of annoyance, glaring pointedly at the human. "_Lovebirds_? Very funny."

She smiled, blowing out a candle and leaving the two Dragons in darkness save for the ghostly moonlight that came in through the window. "Goodnight, girl."

"Goodnight, Astrid."

The two Dragons sat together, under the light that sang through the frozen windows that cast both of them in a haunting light, making long shadows of tiny bumps in their scales and fading the colour of their world to little more than black and silver. Stormfly glanced at Toothless and saw him still shaking, and she scooted a bit closer to him, sharing her heat with him. He gave another burr, before his scales began to warm and his shivering slowed to a still.

Stormfly looked through the window at the torrent of wind and snow. "Nice weather huh?"

Toothless scoffed, "Hah, I would have been out looking for Hingejaw but in this blizzard, nearly killed myself getting here."

"Hm, you're cute when you're grumpy, you know?" She gave a short laugh at his indignance, glancing down at him. When they were both sitting down she was still taller than him.

Toothless gave a short little puff of mock-unhappiness. She chuckled quietly, before a stray thought worked its way back. "Oh, and by the way, have you seen Hookfang happy lately? Or like, seen him at all?"

"Now that mention it…" he seemed a bit guilty for not noticing, best friend and all. "He has been busy lately, hasn't he? Last I saw him he seemed pretty out of it, worried about something."

"Hm, wonder what's up with him?" Hookfang wasn't usually one to let things get him down.

"We all have our problems, I guess," Toothlesss shrugged.

A moment later, he asked quietly, "So, how's the cuts?"

Stormfly glanced down, no use hiding the wounds this close. "You know, it's healing fast as it can. I'm just worried about the scars…" she looked at the bite wound on her chest.

He gave her a quick look, barely lingering over her wounds. "You know, some Dragons like scars."

"So I've heard," Stormfly muttered. She sighed, "Just not this Dragon."

A clink from behind and she noticed Toothless' fake sail scraping against Astrid's bed post. He offered optimistically, "Look on the bright side, at least it'll heal. _My_ sail's never growing back and I can't ever fly without a two-legs."

The Nadder smirked and sarcastically said, "Oh please, at least that means you'll have good company when you fly. Look at me, I have such great taste in guys that I only go for the abusive ones."

"Well…" He began. She glanced at him as he shrugged, "That's not really true, is it?"

"Oh?"

"You can't say you only go for abusive guys if you've only gone for one." He made a contemplative face, bobbing his head as he said, "You know, you've got to sample a few more before you say something like that."

"Are you flirting with me?" she laughed.

"I don't know… am I?"

"Yeah, you are. I'll give you a 7 for effort, 6 for execution."

Toothless laughed, Stormfly smiled, he looked away, still unsure and tentative, and to tell the truth, now that she was here next to him in the moonlight, she felt a bit uncertain herself, though she was glad the dim light hid it. They had been together alone before, but this time it seemed different, the two of them in the dark together, in the silence without any of their friends listening expectantly just around the corner, or Barf waiting to kill Toothless if he upset Stormfly.

They were alone, private, nothing in the world except for them. He had been defrosted for quite a long time by now, but neither of them moved away, and she realised that she could feel his scales against her own, pressing against her slightly with each breath she took. She hadn't ever been this close to him.

He saved her from the awkward quiet, "Shame the storm rolled in, me and Hiccup were hot on Hingejaw's trail till the snow came."

"About the search… you all shouldn't tire yourselves out."

Toothless was genuinely surprised at what she suggested, glowing green eyes opening wide and his mouth falling agape. "You mean, give up? After what Hingejaw did to you, he needs to pay."

She shrugged, "I don't know, it's like right now, I just want to forget him, I can't help but forget him. You know, I should probably thank him." She glanced down and laughed at the incredulous look she received. "Oh don't give me that look, I know he hurt me, it's just that this whole thing, it uh, it put things in perspective. Who my real friends were, and who…"

Stormfly turned so she faced Toothless directly, "Toothless, you came for me when I was in the Forest. You have no idea how I felt when I was pinned down and I could hardly fight back, when I heard your voice. When I was alone, when I was scared, you came to save me, you came for me."

He smiled awkwardly, obviously unversed with this turn in conversation. "Heh, didn't we already go over this? I'm your friend, any time you want me to go up against a killer, just give a call."

She advanced slightly, looking into his eyes, "Friends can do many things, friends can help each other, friends can console each other, friends can come down every day and help someone recover. But friends don't do what you did, they don't risk their lives for one another, they don't go into fights they can't win for each other. You were willing to sacriface yourself for me, friends don't just do that."

Stormfly glanced at herself, then at him. He was beautiful, she never thought she'd find herself saying something like that about Toothless but he was beautiful, wide eyes like emeralds that glowed in the dark, his black form smooth and lean. He wasn't fierce, he wasn't strong, he wasn't intimidating, but there was something else to him now that she'd never noticed, something she couldn't place. It was strange, he had fought a Nadder almost twice as large as him without a second thought, yet now he seemed afraid of her. She didn't want to frighten him.

"After the forest, you were the only one who could make me happy again, you made me laugh again. Whatever we had before between us-" she whispered, looking deep into those green eyes, neither of them able to look away. "...it's changed, it's different now. We're not just friends anymore."

Toothless shifted slightly, she could tell that he had known it too for a while, neither of them had been bold enough to act on it. He timidly asked, "Is that… a bad thing?"

Stormfly shrugged, "Maybe." Then, after a moment, a smile crept onto her snout. "Maybe it's a good thing. Should we take it slow, try to make sense of this, or do you want to just roll with it?"

"Well, if you're down," Toothless smiled, shrugging, "Then I'm good for anything."

She inhaled sharply, sidling up next to the Nightfury again and turning to face the window, the moonlight washing over her. An exhale, a secret grin, "So, 'roll with it' it is."

"Are you smiling?"

"… maybe a little." She bumped him with her shoulder. "And here's the reason why."

A strong wind made the door rattle on its hinges, make the window frame shiver and the glass shake. Toothless whistled, "Well, looks like I'll be here a while."

"I'm not complaining." Stormfly shrugged, "It's Midwinter, the solstice. Longest, coldest night in the year."

He smiled coyly, "Are you flirting with me?"

"Of course not!" She slid closer against him, so close that she felt his heartbeat against her's, fast and bated. "I'm just saying we might as well get nice and warm while we're here."

Stormfly curled her legs up under her as she lay down, tucking herself closer into his embrace, folding up her wings so her felt him against her, their heat staving off the cold. She smiled in the darkness, curling up like a cat, feeling his tail brushing against her's. If tonight was the Midwinter solstice, the longest night of the year, that just meant that every night hereafter lasted that much shorter, each new dawn hereafter came that much earlier.

* * *

Bol here again, I guess that's the end of this arc. It was an amazing journey with all of you, from my original account where I wrote the original Sun Kissed, to here. If I said I had PassiveBot to thank for making this possible, I'd be telling the truth and lying. He was immensely helpful, got me out of a rough patch in my life and reignited my passion for writing, I have him to thank, but I also have you to thank for this, you the reader. The support you've all shown to this story has been instrumental in the continuation of this story of our's, I look forward to every review you guys write, every critique I read, every private message you guys send, I love all of you because you were the reason I kept writing and you were the reason I never stopped. Thank you.

And about the notice up above. Me and PassiveBot have been working together for, a few months now I guess? Well, I had always wanted to keep it just between us but he is _very _persuasive and at his insistence we've decided to try something out. To all our very prolific readers who have ideas on where to go with the story, we ask you to private message us and **share your ideas** for this story. The readers have always been our inspiration and we want to take that to the next level, so if you are willing to share your ideas with us we'll do our best to incorporate, integrate, and maybe, if they're good enough, create a whole arc on your suggestions. Simply private message us and we'll contact you as soon as we can.

Good reading, and good day to all of you.


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